The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has warned the Federal Government to desist from rigging the presidential election billed for tomorrow (Friday, February 16, 2019.
The group also advised multinational oil companies in the region to immediately vacate their personnel in case of any eventuality.
NDA is a factional militia group to the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) and the Coalition of Niger Delta Militants (CONDEM) that threatened the peace of the country three years ago over unresolved Niger Delta questions.
The group threatened to cripple the country’s economy should President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) led government rig the presidential poll in its favour.
This came barely few hours after the spokesperson of President Muhmmadu Buhari Campaign Orgnization in Delta State, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, at the Secretariat of the APC in Asaba, thanked the ex-militants in the region for endorsing his principal for second tenure.
Ojougboh had threatened that APC would cut the rigging legs of PDP and cause the party’s hand to wither if supporters engaged in malpractices.
But NDA, which earlier adopted the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, rejected the purported plan by some ex-militant ‘generals’ to make a U-turn to endorse Buhari.
The spokesperson of the militant group, Brig- Gen. Mudoch Agbinibo, in a statement, urged Nigerians to be prepared for a perpetual recession if Buhari insisted on imposing himself on the people.
His words: “As a warning and closing note; we want to resound it to members of the international community, multinational corporations and subsidiaries’ operatives to withdraw their workforce and services from Niger Delta within the period of this elections. We shall not relent until oil stops to flow in the pipes that braces our feet in our land.
“We are in charge of the struggle now and our strike teams are active and gallantly waiting to receive instructions from the high command to cripple the Nigerian economy again if Buhari is rigged back to office.”
The group further threatened that the country would return to trenches and nosedive into zero economy if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) connives with agents of darkness and unscrupulous elements on the corridor of power to write results.
“And this time, it will be a perpetual recession for Nigeria, as we shall not relent until oil stops to flow in the pipes that brace our feet in our land. Not to be casualties to the ongoing securitization and provocation in the Niger Delta by the Nigerian military command, we warned”, the statement further read.
The group, however, lambasted ex-militant leaders, including General Boyloaf, Government Tompolo, Shoot-at-Sight, Tom Ateke and Farah Dagogo for their proposed en-dorsement of President Buhari, although, Tompolo and Dagogo had, on Wednesday, publicly dissociated themselves from the endorsement.
The group described Buhari as an enemy of the people of Niger Delta, maintaining that, “we are adopting Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as the sole candidate to be voted for by all the people of the Niger Delta as a result of his political ideology, which is in tandem with our agitation for equitable and fair principles of federalism.
“The high command is convinced that when elected come February 16, 2019, the government of Alhaji (Dr) Atiku Abubakar will not only restructure Nigeria, but will reverse the inimical ownership rights to natural resources alongside promises that fall within the basis upon which we declared: ‘Operations Red Economy’ against the evil government of Nigeria”, Agbinibo said. The group cautioned Atiku against jettisoning the cardinal objective of restructuring the country and benefitting the region when elected into office within six months to forestall further agitation from the militant axis of the region.
