The New
Delta Avengers, a militant group, has shelved its threat to launch attacks on
oil facilities in Delta State from the midnight of June 30, 2017.
The planned
attack was to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the alleged
starving of oil communities of funds by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
The
militants in a letter to Clark signed by the Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Isoko and
Ndokwa “high commanders” of the group said they were shelving the planned
attack due to appeals by Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and his determination to
end the impoverishment of oil communities.
They said
although they would not attack oil facilities but they would not demobilize
their armaments, hardware and men from locations where they have been camping
since they were dispatched three weeks ago until they were sure of positive
result from Clark’s intervention.
They warned
that a proper ceasefire would only happen if the governor stopped the
marginalization of the oil producing communities in the state.
In the
letter to Clark the militants wrote: “The NDA has decided to shelve our planned
attack on major oil facilities in the region from June 30, 2017.
“We are not
oblivious of your concerns that our activities is capable of further causing
adverse effects on the crude production and derail your ongoing engagement with
the Federal Government. But as we said in several statements, our grouse is not
with the Federal Government, but with the present Delta administration’s
deliberate neglect and deprivation of oil bearing communities in the state and
underfunding of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission
(DESOPADEC), since the swearing in of this government in 2015.’’
The
militants said despite these signals, governor Okowa had continued to accuse
them of being foreigners , saying they would prove him wrong and show him and
the Federal Government that they are sons and daughters of Delta State.
They
stressed that they would prove the governor that “they know the land and how to
hit where it hurts most.”
Meanwhile,
the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Sheriff Oborevwori has
assured unpaid contractors to DESOPADEC of the government’s determination to
offset their debts.
Oborevwori
told the aggrieved contractors yesterday in Asaba that the state government was
not unaware of their plight.
He said the
effect of dwindling resources on the government had resulted in the inability
to offset the backlog of debts, adding that as things get better the issue
would be efficiently addressed.
Their
leader, Comrade Francis Obule, said the protest became necessary following recent
actions by banks, which retrieved their properties used as collateral for loans
obtained.
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