The
federal government’s efforts to restore peace in the troubled oil-rich
Niger Delta region recorded a significant gain yesterday as the Niger
Delta Avengers, the group that had been responsible for recent serial
attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the region, said it was ready to
discuss its grievances with the government.
The militant group’s turning of a new
leaf, was largely due to pressure from the back channel contact made by
the federal government’s negotiating team, headed by the Minister of
State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu.
The group’s offer of dialogue was,
however, predicated on International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in
the region committing to send independent mediators to the dialogue,
saying that was the only way it could have confidence in talk that is
expected to chart the way forward for peace in the region.
The federal government’s team, which
also include the National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno,
is mandated to reach out to the militants and other stakeholders in the
region and find a way to end the violence that had adversely affected
oil production output of the country, which had dwindled from 2.2m bpd
to about 1.6m bpd. Only yesterday, the Nigerian Petroleum Development
Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company
(NNPC), said it had lost N60 billion in three months, owing to the break
in its Forcados pipeline bombed by the NDA.
The NPDC’s loss is only a part of the
general loss to the nation’s overall revenue loss manifested in the
shut-in of over 800,000bpd since the NDA hostility began in February.
But in a statement by Mudock Agbinibo,
the group’s spokesperson, it said it would cease fire to enable it
discuss with the federal government’s team. It, however, demanded
absolute sincerity on the part of government, warning that it would not
allow the discussion to be turned into a political jamboree.
“We are warning this government of
President Muhammadu Buhari not to turn the essence of genuine peace talk
and dialogue to political jamboree that is prevailing now where all
manner of social media agitators and criminals have been sponsored by
the job seeking corrupt political class to save faces before the
government of the day,’’ the NDA said.
As guarantees, the group said while it
would not blow up more pipelines, it insisted that repairs to all bombed
trunk lines must be put on hold until the dialogue is over, threatening
to sink in the deep waters two large vessels belonging to the oil
companies if its conditions were disregarded.
Credit: Thisday
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