NDA attacks: No soldiers yet in Oporoza, but communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom fear imminent invasion

Against some media reports, no soldiers have been deployed to Oporoza, the home community of Government Ekpemupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo’ to search out alleged attackers of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region.

However, some Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State have expressed fear for their lives and properties over what they allude as an impending military invasion of the place to fish out attackers of the NNPC/Chevron pipeline valve and 48-inch trunk line that supplies crude oil to Warri Refinery.

Situation report from Oporoza on Tuesday and other parts of Gbaramatu Kingdom said there were no irregular movements, neither were there presence of any troops in the communities.

But some community folks said, they were subjected to apprehension and fear whenever a pipeline was attacked in their area.

“Our people no longer sleep with both eyes closed because of fear of the unknown,” said Christopher Ejoh, Isaiah Ukulor and Felix Ejoh, executive members of Inikorogha community in Warri South West LGA, adding that they fear that the army, in a bid to fish out the alleged attackers of the oil facilities, would invade their place, thereby making their land a theatre of war.

According to them, “few days ago, we saw a naval chopper hovering around our communities taking photographs; and many people started running into the bushes and sheltering, because they thought the army had come to invade them.

“We are appealing to both the perpetrators of the oil facilities attack and the military not to make Gbaramatu a theatre of war again. We are begging the perpetrators of these acts to take the fight somewhere else.”

They however called on the military to exercise caution in its bid to hunt down the perpetrators of the oil installations, saying residents were living around the impacted communities.

“The army should not by any way make innocent communities culprits in the militants’ onslaught,” the community leaders said.

Meanwhile, the communities have condemned the multiple attacks on the Chevron valve facilities and 48-inch pipeline, urging the perpetrators to desist from the act forthwith, and stop giving Gbaramatu Kingdom a bad name and subjecting the indigenes to fear of possible military invasion.

Ejoh, Ukulor and Ejoh said the compromised oil facilities, besides the economic sabotage and environmental degradation they cause the Nigerian state and entire Niger Delta region, the psychological effects on the locals and the immediate environment were enormous.

“Each time a pipeline is sabotaged, residents jostle for fear of being caught along the firing line,” they said, describing the attacks as “inimical to the socio-economic development of the area and counterproductive to the development plans of the Federal Government.

They wondered why the attackers struck again when major repairs were ongoing on some pipelines earlier blown.

“We are seriously pained by what is going on around Gbaramatu Kingdom and its environs. We condemn in its entirety these attacks, and appeal to the perpetrators to stay away from our communities. Our communities should not be battlefield, because we are at peace with Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and other multinationals around us.

“NGC in particularly have been of great help to us. The electricity we are enjoying today was provided by them, and we have no cause to be in any disagreement with them,” the statement said.

They lamented that the NGC pipelines that were earlier commissioned after their repairs by Ocean Marine Solution, a conglomerate handling pipeline repairs, were among the lines that were attacked in Inikorogha and Bafan communities, respectively.

The communities appealed to the company not to be discouraged to terminate the pipeline surveillance job of which some of the communities are beneficiaries.

They also condemned the sabotage on the Chevron trunk line in Abiteye, Alero, Dibi, Otunana and Makaraba flow stations, which feed Chevron’s major tank farm in Escrovos, Warri.