By: Felix Ikpotor
A Niger Delta Group, Niger Delta Intelligentsia Team (NDIT) has fingered the political upheaval in Rivers State as responsible for the Monday explosion of the Trans Niger Pipeline TNP.
The explosion which occurred at Bodo community in Ogoniland resulted in huge spill of crude oil on the environment with a raging fire.
It is widely feared that the sad incident which happened on the backdrop of threats by some militant groups within the Niger Delta and individuals who are moving against attempts to impeach the governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara in the heat of the ongoing political crisis.
Even though the cause of the Bodo explosion is yet to be ascertained General Secretary of the Niger Delta Intelligentsia Team (NDIT) believes that the explosion was politically motivated.
Reacting to the incident during a press interview in Port Harcourt, Nse Victor Udoh, Secretary General of the group stated that though information about the explosion was still sketchy, he suspected the explosion was a politically motivated attack.
He explained that the group’s position is hinged on the fact that for about a year now or there about there had been zero incidents on the TNP saying: “All of us are aware of that but recently, people have been issuing threats of possible incidences of vandalism and attacks on oil facilities”.
Udo explained; “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”.
Commenting on the location of the threats being away from the area of the explosion he insisted; “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 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”.
He added; “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”.
He called on the security agencies to be more vigilant over 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,” Udo maintained.
He however, stated that at the moment, all claims about the conclusion only constitutes preliminary observations.
“Experts will investigate and know what the cause is and we will patiently wait to see what the outcome of the investigation will show. Whether it is equipment failure or whatever it is. But I want to call on federal government and the security agencies to be eagle eyed.
“Investigations are underway and I’m not professionally equipped, it will be hasty to categorically point at equipment failure but whatever it is we are thinking that this is highly politically motivated”, Udo insists.
