Niger Delta group threatens to shut down oil installations
A coalition of freedom fighters and ex-agitators in the Niger Delta have threatened to blow up oil installations in the region if allocations meant for the 23 local government areas of Rivers State are seized.
The Martin Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, had brought the Central Bank of Nigeria before a court, praying it to withhold allocations meant for the local government areas of the state.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, also dismissed all objections by the Rivers State government against proceedings with the hearing of the suit to halt all expenditures by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The legal battle followed the political tussle between Wike and Fubara.
The governor recently conducted a local government election, against the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja and without the supervision of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the police.
Following the conduct of the local government poll and consequent swearing-in of chairmen and councillors, the Amaewhule-led assembly took the government to court and asked the CBN to withhold the allocations to the councils.
However, the Niger Delta coalition, under the aegis of the Niger Delta Development Force, urged President Bola Tinubu not to yield to alleged plots through the courts to seize allocations meant for the local governments.
The NDDF spokesman, Justin Alabraba, disclosed this at a news briefing in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Sunday evening.
Alabraba alleged that the coalition got wind of a plot to stop the allocations meant for the councils through a court in Abuja, on Monday, but warned that such development would be met with a shutdown of oil installations and facilities in the region.
He insisted that the chairmen of the 23 local governments were duly elected in a democratic process on October 5 elections in line with the judgment of the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the land.
The coalition, therefore, warned the Tinubu-led Federal Government to avoid actions capable of plunging the Niger Delta into the dark days of agitations and militancy, which the late former President, Umaru Yar’Adua and Dr Goodluck Jonathan fought so hard to end through the amnesty programme.
Alabraba said any judgment from any court in Abuja on Monday or subsequently, that denied the Rivers local governments their statutory allocations would be met with devastating destruction of strategic oil installations across the region.
He stated, “Let them try it on Monday or any other day and see what will happen. We will shut down major oil pipelines and production installations, and it will be the beginning of the worst to come.
“Nyesom Wike cannot be using Tinubu’s powers to cause problems in Rivers State without any consequences.”
He said leaders of the region had been raising the alarm and cautioning Wike’s enablers to rein in on him to halt the assault on the state and the Government of Sir Siminalayi Fubara, warning that those wise counsel appeared to be falling on deaf ears.
Alabraba further said any attempt to destabilise Rivers State would spiral into serious implications in the entire Niger Delta, as Rivers is the headquarters of the region.
He warned that crude oil and gas production in the region would suffer unprecedented suffocation if any untoward judgment was delivered against Rivers State or any part thereof, and cautioned judges to be mindful of the consequences of their actions.
He expressed dismay that the FCT minister had continued to use federal might to undermine Fubara and his government in the state, which he said was affecting development.