By Egufe Yafugborhi

WARRI — WORRIED by the spread of attacks on oil assets in hitherto untouched facilities in the producing land areas of Delta State, communities under Oil Mining Lease, OML, 30 have opened independent investigations to expose the masterminds.

This was made known in a statement, yesterday, by Morris Idiovwa, Chairman, OML 30 Community Development Board, traversing Urhobo, Isoko, some Itsekiri and and Ijaw oil host communities, hours after men of new Joint Task Force, JTF, Operation Delta Safe, arrested Garbiel Ogbuje, a suspected militant allegedly involved in assets bombing in Isoko and Urhobo axes.

Idiovwa said: “We must be proactive, particularly in Urhobo land, in containing the escalating militancy in the region, particularly emergent new groups bent on roping the peaceful and law-abiding Urhobo people into the whole confusion.

“We are worried because we see external forces as the real threats. Violence is not our pattern, it’s not who we are. We don’t want Urhobo land turned into battle ground and so we urge leaderships to reach out to our youths not to start a process likely to soil the good name our fore-fathers bequeathed us.

“For communities in OML 30 operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and other partners, our benefits under a memorandum of understanding are dependent on the oil and gas derived from our soil. Right now, we are losing tremendously as these criminal gangs in the name of militancy are destroying our assets.”