The Daily Trust has reported that Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) and the Patriotic Force (PF) led by militant leader, Ateke Tom has threatened to cripple oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta region and has issued a February 14, 2009 deadline to oil majors operating in Nigeria to vacate the region. At the expiration of the February 14 deadline, the militants said fighters would attack facilities of oil companies in the region, naming Shell, Agip, Intel, the NLNG and ALSCON as the companies’ installations would be targets.
The militants accused the companies of supporting and aiding the military to carry out attacks on their camps in the region. An on-line statement made available to journalists in Port-Harcourt yesterday by spokesman for the NDV and PF, Mr. Tamunokuro Ebitari said the militant group was launching the zero exploration because the Federal Government had chosen the path of force and not dialogue in resolving the crisis in the Niger Delta. Ebitari said the special military Joint Task Force (JTF) in Rivers State had continued to launch unprovoked attacks on its locations, the latest being the gun fight between the military and the militants at the weekend.
Source: africanexecutive.com
