Militants threaten attack on Trans-Forcados pipelines

A militant group, Niger Delta Green Land Justice Mandate, has threatened to blow-up Shell Petroleum and Development Company’s (SPDC) Trans-Forcados pipelines. They were earlier attacked by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).

In a statement yesterday by its spokesman, Tam Bashire, the group berated the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PNDF) led by Chief Edwin K. Clark, which scheduled a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on October 29, 2016. It alleged that PNDF was just a “new conduit” of Clark’s team.

The militant group, which said it was totally against the scheduled meeting, stressed that if the Federal Government wanted to meet with the people of the region, “it cannot be through those associated with the causes of long history of neglect and impoverishment.”

The group, alleging a breach in the ongoing dialogue, further said that no level of military protection would stop it from bringing down the major crude oil line if SPDC went ahead to reopen its facility.

Trans-Forcados is one of Nigeria’s biggest underwater pipelines, supplying crude oil to export terminal, which produces about 250,000 barrels of crude per day.

But the facility was first attacked in the renewed insurgency in the region by the NDA, forcing SPDC to declare a force majeure on February 21, 2016, a week after the pipeline was hit by an explosion.