By Ade Jacobs
Militants from the oil bearing states of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, under the aegis of the Niger Delta Liberators (NDL), have threatened to disrupt oil production and cripple the economy over the 2021 budget.
The militants said they are angry that the N13 trillion budget estimate presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly on October 8, did not capture the oil producing areas in terms of development projects.
The NDL has, therefore, issued a warning to multinational oil companies operating in the region of their planned resumption of hostilities in the area, urging them to evacuate their workers from rigs, platforms and manifolds without further delay.
It called on foreign nationals to leave the area before the “heavyweight of the NDL Special Trained Striking Force Unit falls on them.”
Their demands also include the urgent release of the N98 billion gas flare penalty fund to the host communities of the Niger Delta which are funds domiciled in the federation account through the Central Bank of Nigeria and multinational oil companies as payment to compensate the communities being affected by the activities of the IOCs.
They also demanded that federal government, put on hold, the proposed 2021 budget, which appropriated billions of naira to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, headed by Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the Niger Delta Development Commission until a substantive board of the NDDC is inaugurated and sworn in by the President.
The NDL, in a statement signed by Benjamin Owei, gave a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to meet their demands.
It said “All foreign nationals working in the creeks with all the multinational oil companies are at this moment advised to leave the region as all our unit commanders have been put on a red alert to resume operation zero oil production in this new fresh demand.”
“The oil facilities listed for destruction are; the Chevron major oil platforms, Shell major oil pipelines and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation gas pipelines that distribute from Escravos-Warri- Kaduna-Lagos and also supply to Abuja.
“We will bring them all down until our demands are met through proper engagement from the Federal Government or else, we are not going back on the 21-day ultimatum issued earlier.
“And we are going to occupy all the platforms, locations and major crude oil pipelines until we see a proper channel of engagement from the Federal Government through these agencies mentioned above, the NNPC Group Managing Director and most especially the newly appointed Amnesty Coordinator who has promised President Muhammadu Buhari that he was going to engage all the aggrieved militant groups and stakeholders.”
The militants are also angry that the federal government took $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account, last year, to acquire heavy weapons for the military to fight the Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.
NDL described the action as “wicked and insensitive to the peace accord signed with the people of the Niger Delta region.”