GOVERNMENT officials are having a headache trying to convince militants groups in the Niger Delta that its plans for peace talks are sincere and thus get them to suspend their bombing campaign for the time being.
Over recent weeks, militancy has returned to Nigeria's oil-producing south-south region, with militant group the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) blowing up oil pipelines and installations. In a desperate bid to find peace and combat the menace that has resulted in output falling to 1.6m barrels a day from 2.2m barrels, the government has suggested peace talks.
Minister of state for petroleum resources Ibe Kachikwu has made overtures to the NDA and other militant groups, asking them to halt their campaign and give peace talks a chance. However, suspicious of the government's motives, the militants are reluctant to give up their campaign, fearful that it may be a ploy to deceive them.
Mr Kachikwu has asked the militants to halt further attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region while he fine-tunes the process for the proposed dialogue with stakeholders. However, one of the challenges he is battling to surmount is getting the militants to agree to no longer blow up pipelines after repairs by the oil companies.
Oil companies have complained that it is difficult for them to continue operations in the face of continuous bombings of their repaired pipelines by militants, who have ordered the operators not to carry out repairs until government addresses their demands. Many of the oil companies feel that it is a waste of resources to spend billions of naira to repair damaged pipelines, only for them to be blown up again immediately afterwards.
One industry source said: "It is risky to ignore the threats by the militants as they have matched their words with action, blowing up pipelines repaired by oil companies despite the presence of soldiers. That is the reason why many of the oil companies feel that it is a waste of resources to spend billions of naira to repair damaged pipelines, only for them to be breached.
One stakeholders, who attended a recent closed-door meeting with Mr Kachikwu at Asaba, added: “The minister was eager to ensure that Niger Delta Avengers allow the oil companies to repair the damaged pipelines and begged us to talk to them. We saw his predicament and it was in the communique that the militant groups should allow the oil companies to effect repairs of damaged oil and gas facilities because that is the major problem at the moment.”
In accepting to take part in the dialogue by government, five days ago, NDA said it would not allow repair works on damaged pipelines during the negotiations for dialogue. Its spokesperson, Col Mudoch Agbinibo, warned that they are going to redirect all their activities if the government, oil companies and their service firms refuse to abide by the warning not to carry out any repair works and suspend the sale of crude oil from the region as they await the right atmosphere that will engender genuine dialogue.
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