Port Harcourt — Militants on Tuesday night reportedly blew up a flow station in Otunana, Delta State that belongs to Chevron, in what appears as part of the battle of propaganda and misinformation waged against federal might.

Fire indeed broke out on a platform which produced 10,000 barrels of oil per day, but Joint Task Fore (JTF) Spokesman, Rabe Abubakar, rubbished the claim by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) that it destroyed the facility.

"Against claims by some groups that the fire was caused by an act of sabotage by militants and their affiliated group, the MEND, it was rather caused by system failure of a platform in the flow station," he insisted.

Abubakar said the JTF is on red alert at all major government facilities in the Niger Delta, and no amount of intimidation and propaganda by insurgents would deter troops.

"If any militant group and their collaborators want a show of force, we are ready, if they want to test their strength, they are welcomed; as we do not engage in media war and cheap popularity. Therefore, this claim and all other claims by any militant group should be disregarded in its entirety."

He urged militants to stop creating tension and embrace the olive branch extended to them by Abuja, for their own good and for the good of the region and the nation.

He assured the general public and oil companies that the JTF would protect them, no matter where the distractions and intimidation come from.

A source in Chevron confirmed that the platform had been out of use for the past six months, and that the incident on Tuesday was an internal fire outbreak, not a sabotage by militants.

"People are only apprehensive because of the earlier threat by the militants to attack oil facilities. It is just a fire incident in one of the separators that has been out of use for some time now. It will take up to three days to determine the cause of the incident," he said.

Chevron General Manager (Policy, Government and Public Affairs), Femi Odumagbo, also confirmed that there was a fire outbreak at the Otunana production facility on Tuesday, but "our workforce is safe, relevant stakeholders have been informed, and we are continuing to assess the situation and work to restore the integrity of the facility which had been shut down before the incident."

Nonetheless, MEND Spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, mocked the security forces for giving a false sense of security to oil companies.

He said: "As forewarned, a major 'Cordon and Search' operation by the MEND commenced on June 9 at about 2200 Hrs with devastating effects on the heavily fortified Chevron Otunana flow station in Delta State which is currently engulfed in fire after being overwhelmed by our fighters."

Abubakar described Gbomo and his band as criminals who act and behave like illiterates, for saying on Wednesday that they would declare JTF Commander, Lt. General S.Y. Bello wanted, and would flog Abubakar's bare buttocks when they catch him.

He said the MEND is an outlaw chased out of the creeks but still trying to seek relevance.

Gbomo, however, vowed that soldiers would be made to account for the loss of lives in the Niger Delta.
"These state sponsored terrorists (troops) are responsible for the killings, rapes, indiscriminate bombings, and wanton destruction of property belonging to innocent civilians in impoverished oil bearing communities whose resources continue to sustain the entire Nigerian economy to their own detriment.

"We have adopted the same scorched earth policy of the military which was approved by the Presidency and endorsed by the National Assembly on any oil and gas company that allows its flow stations, rigs, pipelines or super tankers to be used as a safe haven"

The MEND declared Bello a wanted man, and said he should give himself up at our Camp 5 annex and "tell us what happened to the women, the disabled, elderly, babies and children who could not escape from his indiscriminate and cowardly aerial attacks."

Abubakar laughed it off, saying Gbomo and his gang can only run but would not be allowed to hide because their days are numbered.

10,000 barrels a day
72$ per barrel = 720,000$ a day.
that is total nonsense, now the govt and the coy will have to pay for the rebuild and all that.
The Militant is being a nuisance, everyone has a beef with someone, bur there are better ways to deal with the problem, blowing all the flow station and stuff like that crap is total waste of money and the people they are fighting for will be the one to suffer it most.

The suffering of the people didn't start today,
we will continue blowing the flow stations until our people are free from this rotten Devil cage call Nigeria

Im glad they blew it up, They need to blow up more places and assassinate more people.

Go MEND