Elder statesman and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has said continued attacks on oil and gas installations in the region are deliberate attempts to sabotage the peace process with the federal government.
The Ijaw national leader stated this yesterday at a press briefing in Warri, disclosing that a meeting would be scheduled to figure out ways to deal with the situation.
However, he urged the presidency not to be distracted by the renewed hostilities, noting that several factors, including politics, were responsible for the clamp down of major assets in the region.
Chief Clark, while describing perpetrators of the recent attacks as criminals, opined that they were not aggrieved, but out to truncate the dialogue process already established, adding that the innocent members of the community will be left to suffer the aftermath of their actions.
“Our boys were still boasting in the social media that they were going to attack, they do this, do that. I was in my house when they sent to me that FG has sent troops to the creeks in a houseboat opposite Oporoza and that some boys have been arrested. We intervened and those boys were release. So the question is, what do we want, particularly these boys. What are they looking for? They are enemies of the people, they are criminals.
“If something is being done so that we all can benefit, the fight you are fighting did not start today. You have not even waited for the dialogue to take place, and then you are not an aggrieved person. Then you have other ulterior motives.
“So we will soon have a meeting of PANDEF to discuss this thing and take a position. Let me also warn that there are some politicians who are also members of the Niger Delta that are fighting themselves and it is not unlikely that some of these people are involved in these bombings to discredit each other.
“The recent blowing up of Trans-Forcados Pipeline operated by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is no longer a matter arising from grievances, but an act design to sabotage the present peace process.
“I want to emphasise that no Government sits by, and watch its National Assets being destroyed. It is the innocent members of the communities that would bear the brunt of possible reprisal attacks by military.
“We appeal to FG to go on acting on the requests we made to Mr. President on the 1st of November. We will deal with this situation. We won’t sit down at home with arms folded and allow some few individuals to destroy our destiny.
“A larger meeting will be called to review the situation and take a position”, he said.
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