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Nigeria's militants claim two pipelines damaged

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-28 16:40

LAGOS  -- Nigeria's major militants in the Niger Delta region claimed early Monday that they have destroyed two oil pipelines in Rivers State in the region.

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In an e-mail message statement, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said that in keeping with its pledge to resume pipeline attacks within the next thirty days, detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters from Monday sabotaged two major pipelines in Rivers state of Nigeria.

The first pipeline is located in Kula which has been previously sabotaged and the second in Rumuekpe, both belonging, we believe, to the Shell Petroleum Development Company, the statement said.

Five days before this statement, the MEND said it disassociates itself from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) payment claim of US$12 million to militants for pipeline protection as stated by it's Group Managing Director, Abubakar Lawal Yar'Adua.

It said to prove that it is not a part of this deal, the Chanomi creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days.

But the pipeline sabotage is yet to be confirmed by the companies concerned.