The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), an umbrella body of the militant groups in the Niger Delta has threatened to carry out a reprisal attack against the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NOAC) in Ogboinbiri, Southern Ijaw in Bayelsa State.
According to Cynthia Whyte, spokesperson of the JRC, the reprisal attack would be a response to the clash between the militants and the military in Ogboinbiri, where 12 youths were allegedly killed.
Berating Ijaw elders for keeping mute while such injustice was visited on them, the militants vowed to visit the oil company and any other interest group that was party to the killings, promising to inflict the same number of casualties they suffered in the attacks.
Whyte in an online statement said the attack was a move to recapture the flow station earlier seized by the militants with casualties recorded on both sides. But the statement from the militants only spoke of 12 of their members being killed by soldiers on Thursday, June 21, 2007.
Whyte however said the planned attack was only for reprisal purposes and would not vitiate the earlier promise by JRC to cease hostilities against the Nigerian State and its interests following the release of their leader, Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo.
“It is with great sadness that we announce that hours ago, precisely in the very early hours of Thursday, June 21 2007, the security forces of the Nigerian state once again attacked and killed 12 youths of Ogboinbiri in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area in Bayelsa State, who were protesting against the unwanted and criminal killing of their kinsmen weeks earlier by the armed forces of the dubious Nigerian state.
“This unfortunate incident has proved beyond all doubt just how far the Nigerian state and her agents can go to ensure that they sit tight on our God-given resources. Let us therefore inform all those who were party to this evil against our people that they will get their rewards in time to come. Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) will be visited by the same number of casualties, pain and misfortune,” they threatened.
The militants said the killing of their members at a time they had promised to keep the peace was a proof of the desperation of the Nigerian State to hold on to their land. “We will not forgive this,” read the statement.
“Let us also inform all men of goodwill that all measures and reprisal actions taken against AGIP and her conspirators will be in no way related to our earlier decision to cease hostilities against the Nigerian state. This will simply be a ‘payback’ activity and will cut across AGIP’s operations in Rivers and Bayelsa States.
“The death of these young men must be repaid in the same manner. Justice must be done by any means necessary and however crude!” they concluded.
Jun242007