New Militant Group Emerges, Issues Ultimatum to Private Oil Firms

As the Federal Government moves against the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), militancy in the region has tak­en another dimension as a new group: The New Delta Suicide Squad (NDSS) has emerged. Unlike the NDA which con­centrates its attacks on pipelines and facilities of major oil firms, the new group has threatened to destroy the equipment of private oil firms’ installations in the re­gion. The announcement of the group came on the heels of Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari’s threat in a national broadcast to mark his first anniversary in of­fice, to crush the upsurge in mil­itancy in the Niger Delta which has crippled Nigeria’s oil produc­tion. The NDSS warned owners of tank farms, storage tanks and private jetties to quit the Niger Delta within seven days. It said failure to comply with the deadline, the owners of such facilities stood the risk of losing their investments. In a statement issued on Monday by the spokesman of the group, Harry Ebiye, he said: “The New Niger Delta Suicide Squad warns all owners of tank farms, storage tanks and private jetties to quit the region within the next seven days beginning from the date of this publication or risk the destruction of all their facil­ities from the date of the expira­tion of this ultimatum. “The exploitation of this re­gion by scavengers, economic pi­rates, and cowboys must come to an end” Ebiye said. Top officials of the Federal Gov­ernment are divided over how to handle the current attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta by militants.