Chairman of Batan community, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, Ogugu Dickson, yesterday, said militants suspected to be members of the Niger Delta Avengers, weekend,attacked a pipeline surveillance team some minutes after blowing up a crude oil trunk line close to the Batan flow station.
Ogugu, who spoke on the Monday night attack, said: “Following Saturday’s attack, at 11p.m, we heard the blasts and a PPMC surveillance team that was patrolling the river decided to drive to the scene of the incident to ascertain the extent of damage.
Though the point the blasts occurred is less than a kilometre from two military houseboats, the surveillance team, which was roughly six kilometres from the scene of the incident, drove to the scene and were attacked by the Militants, who were still in the vicinity.”
“As soon as the freedom fighters heard the approaching sound of the speedboat, they opened fire. Luckily for the team, no casualty was recorded.”
“Our surveillance team on oil facilities in the area confirmed the attack. They blew up the facility at two separate points. One was on an NNPC pipeline, which is about 800 metres from the manifold.”
