THE Nigerian Army ruled out, yesterday, the use of force by it in dealing with the militancy in the Niger Delta, on a day militants bombed two Shell Petroleum oil pipeline in Rivers State.
The Chief of Operations of the Army, Major-General Sani Saleh, said in Kontagora, Niger State that what the current situation in the Niger Delta required were all elements of national power which he listed as diplomacy, military and economy to resolve.
�What is happening in the Niger Delta is a symmetric warfare; that is, a weaker force fighting a more superior force and so, we can�t use all our might to resolve the crisis in the area because it is a homeland affair,� he said.
Gen. Saleh described the crisis as an internal security operation requiring only the use of the minimum possible force to resolve.
Reminded about the Odi town attack, the Chief of Operations said: �Odi was an accident. What is happening in Niger Delta is a continuous thing and that is why I said it requires diplomatic, military and economy to solve.�
The military, according to him, will like to provide the enabling environment for the other elements of power to work, saying: �Ours is just to stabilise the security situation so that the government can work without stress and pressure to resolve the problem.�
Gen. Saleh said the presence of the military in the Niger Delta region was not to cause a war against the people, stressing that �no matter what, we will continue to use the minimum force necessary ever because they are Nigerians and everybody has the right to express his opinion.�
He, however, warned that the Army�s posture should not be taken as weakness, saying: �If they go beyond reasonable limit to express their dissent, then we will respond accordingly but always using the minimum force.�
The Chief of Operations was at Vulcan Officers� Mess, Kontagora, Niger State where he represented the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Luka Yusuf, at this year�s Combat Support Arms Training.
Lt. Gen. Yusuf in a massage read on his behalf by Gen. Saleh stressed the need to training and retaining the Army in order to keep them abreast in military warfare.
Militants bomb Shell’s facilities
Earlier in the day, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) bombed oil pipelines belonging to Shell in Rivers.
Oil prices rose on the news, with Brent North Sea crude for September delivery climbing $1.58 to $126.10 a barrel, while New York�s main contract, light sweet crude for September, rose by 1.50 dollars to $124.76 a barrel.
Spokesman for Shell in Nigeria, Tony Okonedo, said a helicopter overflight had confirmed an attack on one of the pipelines at Kula.
�We are assessing right now the extent of damage, but there is no fire report so far,� he added.
However, the spokesman was not immediately unable to confirm rebel claims of an attack on a second pipeline.
The attack is the latest to rock Shell, a major oil operator in Nigeria. The Anglo-Dutch oil group recently resumed full deliveries from its offshore Bonga oilfield in Nigeria, shut down in June following an attack by MEND.
Bonga lies 120 kilometres offshore and has a daily output capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas.
�In keeping with our pledge to resume pipeline attacks within the next 30 days, detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters from MEND today (yesterday), Monday, July 28, 2008 at about 0115 hours sabotaged two major pipelines in Rivers State of Nigeria,� MEND said in an email.
�The first pipeline is located in Kula which has been previously sabotaged by us and the second in Rumuekpe, both belonging, we believe, to the Shell Petroleum Development Company.�
Shell has also resumed production of its Bonny Light crude in southern Nigeria, restoring around 130,000 barrels per day after an attack on its trunk line at Awoba in Rivers State.
The latest attack came barely a week after MEND vowed new attacks within 30 days to prove that it had not collected money from the Nigerian government, following reports that managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Abubakar Yar�Adua, told a parliamentary hearing on July 22 that the firm paid $12 million in protection fees to Niger Delta militants to enable the repair of a damaged key crude supply pipeline.
�To prove that we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days,� MEND said in an earlier email to AFP.