Militant group, the Niger-Delta Avengers, on Thursday said its recent actions followed decades of betrayal of its people by the Nigerian government, which continues to take sides with oil companies operating within the region.
In a statement Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, its spokesperson, the group said while oil from the creeks are used to enrich the Nigerian state, those in the Niger Delta communities live in “terror of poverty, inhumanity and desolate living conditions.”
At the same time, he said government turns blind eye as the real owners of the resources are employed only to secure the pipelines as well as the oil and gas facilities, while the oil workers live like Kings and Presidents within facilities operated by the multinational oil corporations in the Niger Delta region, Agbinibo continued, within the same region.
He lamented that people of the region have been “continually alienated from all types of development and all essence of quality human life, urging members of the “international community especially Britain, France, the United State of America, Russia, China and European Union to speak up against this ongoing terror and come to the aid of the Niger Delta, as witnesses to this grave inhumanity and history of terror perpetuated against the people of the Niger Delta daily.”
The statement titled: “Enough is enough,” accused successive Nigerian governments for basic necessities of life such as “portable drinking water in the midst of plenty of water mass, electricity, roads, employment, quality education/educational facilities, resource control, participation in the oil business and inclusive governance that will engender substantial freedom.”
NDA warned that it will resist and correct the injustice and inhumanity with every means necessary, warning that the group has “nothing to lose in the battles ahead, (because) rather than provide this justice, the Nigerian government has decided to mobilise her military might to intimidate, torture, maim, victimise and bombard a section of the nation state and her citizenry to allow the free flow of our oil.”
NDA also warned that unlike those involved in past struggles, “we are not like some of these personalities who run champagne parties or turn Rivers State Government House into a house patrimony of god-sons and prebendalism. They says the progress and success of a nation state is the reflection of her constitution that is not manufactured to favour some section and excludes the yearning and aspirations of others; but the indwelling spiritual and historical development of its people.”
The statement stressed urged the international community to support the restoration of the region’s “right to peaceful self-determination from this tragedy of 1914 that has expired since 2014. We want our resources back to restore the essence of human life in our region for generations to come because Nigeria has failed to do that. The world should not wait until we go the Sudan ways. Enough is enough.”
