A new militant group, Ultimate Warriors of Niger Delta, has demanded that 60 percent of Nigeria’s oil blocks be given to the Niger Delta region, threatening to attack oil and gas facilities if the Federal Government does not accede to the request.
The group, which spoke for the first time on Wednesday, also demanded that work at the $16billion Export Processing Zone, which is also called Delta Gas City Project, must commence in earnest.
The militants gave the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to ensure that their demands were met in order to engender a lasting ceasefire in the region.
Spokesperson for the group, Sibiri Taiowoh, in a statement, said if the government truly wanted peace in the region, it should award 60 percent of the country’s oil blocks to the people of the Niger Delta.
The group also demanded for the commencement of academic activities at the Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Tompolo's village, established during the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The group threatened to shut down the facilities of multinationals oil companies operating in the area.
The Ultimate Warriors claimed to be behind some of the recent pipeline bombings in the country.
The statement read, “We want 60 percent of the oil blocks to be allocated to the Niger Delta just as the Federal Government allocated 80 percent to those who are not from the oil-producing area and just as 50 percent of the nation’s resources was used to develop the non-oil regions when we were producing cocoa and groundnut as main economic resources.
“The same 50 percent should be used to develop the Niger Delta region because we are the ones suffering the brunt of oil pollution and degradation.
“We are behind the recent pipeline bombings in the Niger Delta region and I can assure you we will not stop until the Export Processing Zone project and the Maritime University are completed and start operations.”a
