He said the activities of the group were affecting Nigerians as the nation’s oil production had recently further plummeted to 1.1 million barrels per day.
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“The Nigerian military can not intimidate us by harassing innocent Niger Deltans”, spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo said in a statement.
The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group in the Niger Delta, has warned the global oil and gas companies to leave the oil-rich region by today and put an end to oil pollution in the area. On Monday, Nigerian army and militants engaged in a gunfight, which killed two policemen and 20 locals in the area. Production of oil in Nigeria has plummeted from 2.2 million barrels of oil a day to now 1.4 million barrels of oil in a day largely due to the terrorist campaign.
Local media, meanwhile, are reporting army deployment in some of the communities in the region, including Oporoza in Delta State.
But they also have a series of political demands that culminate in the creation of an independent Niger Delta state.
Foremost former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, yesterday appealed to the renegade militants involved in recent attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta region to stop and return to the negotiation table with the federal government in order to give peace a chance in the Niger Delta region.
The Niger Delta comprises of over 7.0% of Nigeria’s landmass, with many ethnic groups inhabiting the region.
Neither the army nor Chevron reacted officially to the incident; both have yet to respond to Anadolu Agency’s requests for comment.
However, analysts are anxious that consistent attacks on Nigeria’s oil pipelines by militant, forcing companies to evacuate workers from deep-waters, may not end soon.
“To the global oil companies and indigenous oil companies, it’s going to be bloody this time around”.
This is the first time Mr. Buhari would visit the region after becoming the president previous year.
They, however, appealed to the military to be cautious in the course of their operations, to avoid collateral damage to the lives and property of law abiding citizens in the area who are also victims of the militants’ attacks.
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Ever since the attack was launched on crude oil pipelines along the southern Delta region, big oil companies operating oil facilities and crude oil pipelines including Royal Dutch Shell (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A), Eni SpA (ADR) (NYSE:E), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) are going through tough times.
