Lagos — IJAW militants from Egbema in Edo State, yesterday, said they bombed an NNPC pipeline, supplying crude oil to the Kaduna Refinery in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, weekend, because of the insistence of the Federal Government to go ahead with the planned summit on the Niger-Delta with the former External Affairs Minister and Under-Secretary for Political Affairs at the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, as the chairman against the wish of the people of the region.

One of the leaders of the Niger-Delta Freedom Fighters (NDFF), who claimed responsibility for the bombing told Vanguard on phone, yesterday, that the Ijaw of Egbema in Edo State were marginalised and "we want our own local government area". He said, "The Niger-Delta summit will not hold with a Northerner as the chairman, that is impossible, we will make the place unsafe for them, they cannot continue to treat us as fools. This is unacceptable". According to him,"We will continue to bomb oil facilities in our area until they create our own local government for us. We are also not happy that the Federal Government has flagrantly been breaching the agreement it reached with Ijaw activists on the peace process in the Niger-Delta region".

He said the militants were also protesting the unprovoked destruction of Egbema communities, namely, Gboleikekuro, Safarogbo, Simughan, Adaugbene and Ojudou by the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta about a fortnight ago. His words, "We will not accept the task force coming to burn our communities saying that they are looking for arms. As we have said, we will not accept what the Federal Government, led by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has done to the Ijaw communities, we will fight back if the Presidency fails to do anything about the killing and displacing of our people from their communities in Egbema kingdom in Edo and Delta states".

He said the claim by the JTF that they burnt down militant camps was not correct, as the soldiers invaded the Ijaw communities without aggravation and wreaked havoc on the defenseless people.

"We have just started, this is the beginning, we are going to cripple all activities in our area, we are tired of political oppression, we want to rule ourselves, let them give us our own local government area in Edo State if they want peace", he added.