The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has taken responsibility for the Sunday’s sabotage attack on pipelines of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refinery in Okrika, Rivers State.
In a statement Monday, it said the attack was in line with the movement’s on-going ‘Hurricane Exodus’, and was intended to bring down the entire refining facility.
“This facility was infiltrated by a few of our fighters with the aid of our internal agents within the NNPC contrary to speculations that the sabotage was carried out by “pipeline vandals and oil thieves”, which is a very convenient phrase used in shielding the truth from the public,” it said, stressing that thorough investigations will reveal that the bomb fragments from the blast are the same in the Warri Refinery explosion of October 22, 2013.
MEND further warned: “We will persist with our attacks on the Nigerian oil industry due to the inaction of President Goodluck Jonathan who continues to rely on an unsustainable and fraudulent Niger Delta Amnesty programme which is only a guise to line the pockets of Goodluck Jonathan, his wife Patience, Jonathan’s cronies and members of the Amnesty Committee whose sudden wealth remains unchallenged by the Nigerian media.”
It reiterated that the entire Amnesty process is a fraud on the people of Nigeria who are being promised peace in the Niger Delta, in the absence of justice, adding that ‘Hurricane Exodus’ is still on course.
