WARRI: A militant faction in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta said on Monday it had ruptured an oil pipeline in response to what it said was the killing of innocent civilians during a military offensive last week.
The Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) said it had struck what it described as a “major pipeline” belonging to state-run oil firm the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) close to the Batan flow station late on Sunday night. NNPC declined to comment and there was no independent confirmation of an attack.
Last Wednesday a military taskforce (JTF) comprising the army, navy and air force began raiding three camps believed to belong to John Togo, the suspected leader of the NDLF, close to the Ayakoromo and Okrika communities in Delta.
“We urge President Goodluck Jonathan and the leaders of the Niger Delta to call the army chief of staff to moderate (the) military onslaught … and never to cause terrorism again by committing genocide in harmless, innocent and poor Ijaw communities,” the NDLF said in an emailed statement.
The Ijaw ethnic group is the largest in the Niger Delta, and some activists have been engaged for decades in a struggle — sometimes violent — against Western oil firms perceived to have over-run and polluted their homelands.
Fighters loyal to Togo hid in buildings in Ayakoromo to escape the military raids before engaging in a gun battle with the security forces, witnesses said. Several rows of houses were torched during the battle.
