The Eleme Youth Council (EYC), in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, has denied claims by a militant group in the Niger Delta region, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) that it blew up a pipeline belonging to one of the multinational oil companies operating in the area.
“By 3.00 am, yesterday, Strike Team 2, carried out a major strike, bombing NNPC pipeline at Eleme leading to NLNG. You won’t stop us,” the group had said.
But speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt yesterday, President of EYC, Prince Brian Emere Gokpa, described the report by the militant group as a figment of the imagination of mischief makers, who want to portray Eleme in bad light.
He said, “The attention of Eleme Youth Council World-wide has been drawn to an online publication that the Niger Delta Avengers blew up pipelines in Eleme local government area. This information is not true; it is unfounded and baseless. It is the imagination of mischief makers whose aim is to project Eleme as a terrible local government area.”
The EYC President also called on youths in the area to embrace peace and abstain from criminal activities, saying, “Eleme local government area is relatively peaceful and no person or group of persons should give false alarm about security situation in the area.
“Let me use this medium to warn all criminal elements in the area to desist from such acts as the council and the youth body will not fold their hands and watch miscreants take over our local government area as we have the capacity to confront any crime in Eleme local government area.”
