The Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta has deployed gunboats in the Chanomi Creeks in Delta State, following threats by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta to blow up the pipelines of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in the area.
Saturday Punch gathered that the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Owoye Azazi, handed down the order to the Commander of JTF, Brig.-Gen. Wuyep Rimtip. MEND threatened to destroy the pipeline, identified as System 2C and other major oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region, within 30 days to prove that it did not collect protection funds from the NNPC. The NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr. Abubakar Lawal Yar�Adua, had claimed that $12 million was paid to militants in the region for pipeline protection but MEND said it did not receive such funds which it described as �Jacob�s bowl of porridge.�
It thereafter said that it would destroy the System 2C, which supplies crude oil to the Warri and Kaduna refineries from the production platforms of the American oil giant, Chevron Nigeria Limited, in Escravos, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. The vandalisation of the pipeline in February 2006 led to the closure of the two refining plants for two years. They were only re-opened in March 2008.
Saturday Punch learnt that the DHQ asked the authorities of JTF not to handle the threat by MEND with levity. To this end, a joint detachment of federal troops has embarked on aggressive patrol of the Chanomi Creeks and other coastal areas of the Niger Delta, to keep the militants at bay. A reliable source at 93 Battalion, Effurun, the headquarters of JTF, told Saturday Punch that many gunboats manned by stern-looking naval and army personnel had taken positions in Chanomi Creeks to protect the nation�s economic assets in the area as directed by DHQ as at Friday.
According to the source, �The patrol is aggressive because we don�t want to treat the handle with levity. You know that the Chanomi Creeks pipeline is very strategic because it serves the Kaduna and Warri refineries and that is why we don�t want to leave anything to chance. We deployed in the area on the very day MEND issued the threat because we believe that all hands must be on deck; we can handle the militants and curtail their violent tendencies. It is a well coordinated operation involving the army, navy and other services.�
The Commanding Officer, NNS Delta, Warri Naval Base, Navy Capt. Samson Ojediran, confirmed the military operation in Chanomi Creeks on Friday. Ojediran said on the telephone, �My men are on patrol with gunboats and patrol crafts. The army too is there in Chanomi Creeks. We are coordinating the operation effectively under the JTF because we believe we can do battle with them if they attempt to do any nonsense.�