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Pipeline repair: FG ignores Avengers, incurs community’s wrath

Published

8 years ago

June 21, 2016

Pipeline repair: FG ignores Avengers, incurs community's wrath

The Federal Government may have decided to call the bluff of the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, as it has commenced worked on the repair of a pipeline belonging to the Nigerian Gas company, NGC, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

The move however, has not gone down well with the host communities which claim they were excluded from the process, but rather intimidated with the heavy deployment of military in the area.

The NDA, which claimed responsibility for the damaged gas pipeline on May 26, had warned the FG not to carry out any repair on damaged pipelines in the Niger Delta until proposed dialogue is concluded.

The NDA said in a statement on June 13: “We are going to redirect and reactivate all our activities if the government, oil companies and their services firms do not heed these modest warnings of not carrying out repair works and suspend the buying of crude oil from our region, as we await the right atmosphere that will engender genuine dialogue.”

However the government is reportedly carrying out repairs on the NGC pipeline at Ubefan Creek in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State with a heavy military presence.

According to community sources, soldiers were escorting badges, tugboats loaded with equipment and personnel heading for the repairs of the damaged facility of on Sunday.

Confirming the development, Chairman of Kunukunuma Federated Communities, Chief Moses Bebenimibo, complained that the contractor carrying out the maintenance, Melcurt Nigeria Limited, did not involve the host community.

He added that government did not consider his community hosting the facility in any manner.

Bebenimibo further accused the Federal Government of being interested only on the oil that flows in the communities and not the well-being of the people.

“They are good in using the military to always intimidate and subdue us in matters that affect us as a people from this end”, he said.

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