A group, the Niger Delta Intelligentsia Team (NDIT) has fingered the political upheaval in Rivers State as responsible for the Monday night’s explosion at the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP).
The explosion which occurred at Bodo community in Gokana local government area of the state resulted in huge spill of crude oil on the environment with an associated inferno.
It is widely feared that the incident occurred on the heels of threats by some Niger Delta militant groups and individuals who were against against attempts by political gladiators to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara in the heat of the ongoing political crisis.
Even though the cause of the Bodo explosion is yet to be ascertained, the NDIT strongly believes that the explosion was politically motivated.
Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt, NDIT General Secretary, Nse Victor Udoh, stated that though information about the explosion was still sketchy, he suspected explosion was a politically motivated attack.
Udo explained that the group’s position is hinged on the fact that for about a year or there about, there had been zero incidents on the TNP.
He said, “All of us are aware of that but recently, people have been issuing threats of possible incidences of vandalism and attacks on oil facilities.
“It’s like when the owl cries at night and the baby dies in the morning, definitely fingers will point that the owl has something to do with it. So I’m strongly of the opinion that this a politically motivated incident. Not a consequence of normal occurrence.”
Speaking on the location of the threats being away from the area where the explosion occurred, the NDIT scribe said: “The Niger Delta is the Niger Delta and all of us criss cross the domain, all of us interact and move around.
“That somebody wants to respond to an issue politically and decides to do it in an area that fingers will not be easily pointed at him does not necessarily make us dumb to consider it not a consequence of political tension, whether it happens deep into the communities where the threats were made or a little bit from the dry land where the threats were not made from.
“Nobody said they were going to blow up the pipeline in Bayelsa or in Gbegena or anywhere. It was just said that pipeline will be torched in the Niger Delta. Those who kept issuing the threat did not specify where they will carry it out. So this is within the region and very significantly within Rivers State. This is highly political. But at this time we have to call on the security agencies to be a bit more vigilant over the national oil assets.
“If they have been able to maintain less infraction for almost a year now, they have been able to engage communities, develop trust and allow things to work normally and there is this incident that some of us are thinking is politically connected, then it’s not undermining their efficiency.
“It is only calling on them to take any threats they hear, whether it is from whatever quarters. Whether it is related to politics or wherever the threats come from, they must be very proactive about it.”
