The Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) has explained why it chose to target installations belonging to oil major, Chevron, alleging that the transnational, in the wake of JTF offensive, was “indifferent to the plight of human beings under whose land they are drilling oil and gas.”
the militant organisation said it had downgraded its orchestrated war, “Piper Alpha” from the status of a hurricane to a tropical storm.
Spokesman of the militant group, Jomo Gbomo, in an exclusive online response to an inquiry by Vanguard, however, said, “The last has not been heard from Piper Alpha”.
On Chevron he said, “Chevron happens to find itself at the wrong place at the wrong time. They are right in the middle of a conflict zone where the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta is claiming to be in control and the only way we can show the world that they are not is by destroying the very facilities they are supposed to be guarding”.
“Secondly, Chevron never offered to help the displaced people by way of relief or medical assistance.
“In fact, they have pretended not to be aware of what is going on. Imagine here is a company that pretends to feel for the communities and turned a blind eye to the atrocities as long as oil flowed. They are being taught a lesson for being indifferent to the plight of human beings under whose land they are drilling oil and gas”, he stated.
According to him, “Our mission is to ground the entire operation of Chevron so we can eventually negotiate from a vantage position over the true federalism matter.
“Our enemy must not have petro-dollars to buy bombs to kill us when we are negotiating”.
On Hurricane Piper Alpha, MEND said: “Right now, the hurricane has been downgraded to a tropical storm. During such a period, there will be a routine sabotage of already damaged pipes, logistics for future operation, planning both for the media and military, etc”.