MASSIVE SPILL AS AVENGER BOMB SPDC FACILITIES IN DELTA

The dreaded militant group, Niger Delta
Avengers, have once again blown up crude oil
trunkline belonging to the Shell Petroleum
Development Company of Nigeria in Batan,
Warri South-West Local Government Area of
Delta State.
It was gathered that the incident occurred at
about 12.05am on Monday.
The fresh attack happened around Camp 3,
few kilometres away from the spot where the
militants had recently also attacked oil
installations early this month.
It took soldiers over five hours before finally
confirming the attack.
Findings revealed that a technical team from
Pipelines and Product Marketing Company
drafted to the spot could not curtail the spill
as of 4.32pm, as crude was said to still be
gushing out of the attacked pipeline.
Sources from the community, who confirmed
the attack to our correspondent, said soldiers
had a difficult time locating the attacked
pipeline because of it remoteness in the
swamp of Batan.
The sources said the militants shot
sporadically for some minutes before
detonating devices to blow up the pipeline.
A top military officer confirmed the attack
when contacted by our correspondent,
saying his men had a hard time identifying
the spot as it was too remote for military
personnel to easily access.
The Chairman of Batan Community, Dickson
Ogugu, when contacted, confirmed the
incident and appealed to the militants to halt
their hostility on oil installations in the region
especially within the Batan axis.
Ogugu, who lamented the spate of attacks on
oil facilities within the region, urged the
militants to accept the offer of dialogue that
the Federal Government was offering them in
the interest of peace.
He lamented that his kinsmen could no longer
go for fishing which was their main
occupation, thereby leading to lack and
hunger among the people.
A PPMC source, who confirmed the incident
to our correspondent, said that the pipeline
which served the Warri refinery and
Forcados had just been fixed after the
militants attacked it about three weeks ago.
Although the militant group had yet to take
responsibility for the attack, the industry
source added that the pipeline only resumed
supply of crude few days ago before being
attacked again on Monday.
It added that the spill was enormous, making
it hard for the technical/maintenance team
deployed to the spot to curtail it.
The spokesperson for the 4th Brigade of the
Nigerian Army in Benin, Edo State, Capt.
Musa Maidawa, could not respond to
enquiries as of the time of filing this report.
But the Public Relations Officer of the Delta
State Police Command, SP Celestina Kalu,
confirmed the attack.
“There was something of that nature at Camp
3 in Batan community. It happened around
0030hrs of today (Monday),” Kalu’s brief text
message to our correspondent read.