LAGOS MAY 9TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The coalition of Ijaw Communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area of the Delta State has urged the perpetrators of multiple attacks on pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Chevron Nigeria Limited to desist from the dastardly act and stop making Gbaramatu Kingdom their theatre of war.
While condemning the attacks in a joint statement issued over the weekend by the Chairman of Inikorogha community in Warri South West Local Government Area, Comrade Christopher Ejoh, Chief Isaiah Ukulor and Chief Felix Ejoh, and made available to newsmen, the group expressed concern that the militants were targeting facilities within Gbaramatu Kingdom and other Ijaw enclave, thus giving Gbaramatu Kingdom a bad name and subjecting the locals in Ijaw communities to perpetual fear of possible military invasion of their land.
They said that beside the economic sabotage and environmental degradation, which the perpetrators were causing the Nigerian State and entire Niger Delta region, the psychological effects on the locals and the immediate environment were enormous as the residents each time a pipeline is sabotaged have had to contend with for fear of being caught in the firing line.
The leaders said the attacks were inimical to the socio-economic development of the area and counterproductive to the development plans of the Federal Government and multinationals who were carrying out repair works on some earlier sabotage pipelines in the communities.
They lamented that the Nigerian Gas Company pipelines that have been commissioned earlier after their repairs by Ocean Marine Solution, an oil service firm handling pipeline repair jobs for NGC in the area, were among the lines attacked in Inikorogha and Bafan communities.
They however urged the company not to be discouraged to terminate the pipeline surveillance job of which some of the communities are beneficiaries.
Besides, they also condemned the sabotaging of the Chevron trunk line in Abiteye, Alero, Dibi, Otunana and Makaraba flow stations, which feed a major Chevron’s tank farm in Escrovos, Warri, saying that there was no reasonable justification for the twin attacks.
The Ijaw leaders said: “We are seriously pained by what is going on around Gbaramatu Kingdom and it environs. We condemn in its entirety these attacks and want to appeal to the perpetrators to stay away from our communities.
“Our communities should not be a battle field, because we are at peace with NGC and other multinationals around us. NGC in particular has been of great help to us. The electricity we are enjoying today was provided by them and we have no cause to be in any disagreement with them.”
The statement urged the perpetrators to settle their differences with whosoever they have issues with and stop using the Ijaw communities as theatre of their war.
It said: “We are always subjected to apprehension and fear whenever a pipeline is attacked. Our people no longer sleep with both eyes closed because of fear of the unknown.
“Few days ago, we saw a Naval chopper hovering around our communities taking photographs and many people started running into the bushes and shelter because they thought the Army had come to invade them. So we are appealing to both the perpetrators and the military not to make Gbaramatu a theatre of war again. We are begging the perpetrators of these acts to take the fight somewhere else.”
They called on the military to exercise caution in its bid to hunt down the perpetrators of the heinous act because of residents living around the impacted communities, adding that the Army should not make innocent communities victims in the militant onslaught.