UPDATES: Hurricane Piper Alpha lashed out at the Shell Off-shore Ofirma oil fields today, Sunday, June 21, 2009 at about 0400 Hrs blowing up jacket A in the process. The structure is currently engulfed in fire.
At about 0230 Hrs, the hurricane pounded the Shell major pipeline located at Adamakiri before moving on to another major Shell pipeline in Kula at 0300 Hrs. Both pipelines are located in Rivers state of Nigeria.
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We have been reliably informed that the Chevron Air Strip in Escravos was used by the military as a staging area for the jet fighters and helicopter gunships used in the attacks and bombing of civilian communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta state.
By allowing its facilities to be used in committing atrocities against the host communities where it drills oil and gas from, Chevron has repeated the same mistake by Shell against the Ogoni communities and will pay a price in double measure.
Our public appeal for information on the two men summarily executed by the JTF has paid off with an overwhelming response of leads which led our investigators to the families of the victims.
The best lead happened to come from an anonymous soldier who described himself simply as a born-again Christian from the South.
The murdered men in the You Tube video have been identified as Messrs Boma Green and Stanley Tamunobere Pepple, humble fishermen who come from Bonny Island of Rivers state.
They were arrested and shot on August 8, 2008 on suspicion of being militant informants by the JTF even when they showed their catch and fishing tools as proof of their profession.
Both men were shot on the legs to immobilize them before taken to the Bonny Jetty base of the JTF. It was there that the soldiers sort the services of a camera man to video their "prized catch".
After the shootings caught on tape, we were told Stanley did not die instantly and after appeals from some witnesses that the men are known fishermen were they then allowed to be taken away to the hospital.
They were rushed in a private car to the Teme Clinic run by Doctors without Borders in Diobu, Port Harcourt where he died few hours later from the injuries inflicted by the gunshot wounds. Medical records are available.
We also gathered that the JTF commander in charge of the Bonny area at the time was one Colonel Hassan.
Stanley Pepple left behind a wife and three lovely children and was buried on August 30, 2008.
With this little piece of information to work with, we are again requesting the Federal Government, the Ministry of Defense, the House of Representatives and the government of Rivers state to take the same quick actions they took in attacking civilian communities in Delta state in investigating this matter and giving justice to these men.
When a female civilian was assaulted in Lagos by ratings accompanying a naval admiral that was caught on tape, the Lagos state governor offered to help. The same is expected from the governor of Rivers state.
Those killers are supposed to be the good guys paid by tax payers money. They have more reason to be held accountable.
It is unfortunate that the initial response by the unprofessional spokesman for the JTF was to deny this tape without an investigation.
The ball is the court of the government who refers to the Niger Delta people as its children when it wants peace to access oil and gas. They must display that fatherhood by fishing out the perpetrators who the army can easily identify from just watching the God sent video clip.
Jomo Gbomo
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