TheCable

Niger Delta Avengers have appealed to “our fathers, leaders and royal fathers under the leadership of Papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark” over the continuous attacks on oil assets.

The elder statesman had led stakeholders under the umbrella of Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) to a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja.

At the end of the meeting, which saw the elders presenting 16 demands, the federal government expressed optimism that peace will return to the region.

Surprisingly, the militants attacked a pipeline about 24 hours later, and hit the Trans-Forcados pipeline in Delta state, after a week.

Cark had reacted in annoyance, wondering why the “boys” were opposed to peace.

But in a statement issued on Sunday, Mudoch Agbinibo, spokesman of the Avengers, said the deployment of troops in the region led to the action.

“The idea of communicating with our fathers, leaders and royal fathers under the leadership of Papa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark’s PANDEF before acting will only amount to mere propaganda   while the head is being cut off,” the statement read.

“We all know that peace is not the absence of war. Sincerely speaking, the high command of the Niger Delta Avengers cannot be blamed for the continuous bombing of crude oil export pipelines and other oil installations, since the government has been relentlessly carrying out military build ups to continuously harass communities and indigenes of the Niger Delta after the November 1st meeting of the PANDEF and President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We see this as a deliberate move by the military establishment to undermine any effort of dialogue and negotiations with the people of the Niger Delta.

“The path to sustain the cessation of hostilities in the region among fighters and structures cannot be achieved overnight, when there are clear cases of deliberate security surge by the Nigerian government. We ask for understanding on the side of the PANDEF and the general public.

“The High Command of the NDA is only reacting to government’s deliberate attempts to undermine the process to dialogue and negotiations. It will make a lot of sense on the part of the government of President   Muhammadu Buhari to restrain the security agents/agencies from engaging in activities that are inimical to the process, the people and communities of the Niger Delta.

“There was high hope and expectations from the people of the Niger Delta after the November 1st meeting between PANDEF and President Muhammadu Buhari for a genuine dialogue and negotiations process to kick-start. Instead the government’s security establishment is busy building up clogs to the process that will place our people at position of weakness which is unacceptable to us and  so, there is bound  to  be equal reaction.

“We believed that our fathers, leaders and royal fathers are ready to meet the government of Nigeria with representatives of IOCs and the neutral observers but not with guns, warships and jet fighters terrorizing their communities which of course is one of the sixteen points key demands presented to Mr. President, so the government should stop the ostrich game.”