Nigeria Security Update #1 050607

Oil Workers Strike Affects Air Travelers

Passengers at different airports in the country had a bad time yesterday as it was difficult for them to connect flights due to the scarcity of aviation fuel, known as JET A1, which affected the operations of many airlines that had to cancel flights to various cities.

The scarcity which was occasioned by the strike action embarked by tanker drivers affected the supply of fuel to the depot located at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos.

Decrying the situation occasioned by the strike action, airline operators who pleaded for anonymity said that this would adversely affect socio-economic activities and subject passengers to untold discomfort.
Presently, JET A1 goes for between N78 and N82 per litre.

There has been an uneasy calm as regards the imminent hike in the price of the commodity, as stakeholders had posited that there is always increase in the price of JET A1 any time there is increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

The Federal Government had penultimate week increased the price of PMS from N65 to N75 per litre.
The Managing Director of Ramanniyyah Airlines, a new entrant into the aviation industry, Alhaji Muhammed Tukur confirmed the scarcity of the commodity to journalists.

He alleged that most of the operators hoard the commodity to sell to foreign carriers for more money than selling to domestic operators.

He said, “Yes, the commodity is scarce. Only Oando has been supplying fuel, and they have almost run out of the commodity. Another worrisome issue is that some, not all the marketers hoard this commodity only to sell to foreign carriers at exorbitant rates. The scarcity has been on for two days running"

Tukur however expressed concern the impact the scarcity will have on the sector, if not resolved immediately.

"I forsee dislocation in travel plans and outright cancellation of flight if this problem is not tackled promptly. I bet you, you will begin to see disruption in flight services by this evening (yesterday), as most of the operators have already exhausted their reserve"

He called on the new administration of Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'Adua to look into the general problem of fuel scarcity, with a view to tackling them.

Captives Claimed to be in Failing Health

One of the armed militant groups in Bayelsa State which penultimate weekend seized ten oil workers from a vessel lying pipelines off the Atlantic coast of Sangana in the Brass Local Government Area of the state has raised alarm over the failing health of their captives.

The embattled expatriates, three Americans, four British, a South African, an Indian and a Nigerian were working for United States based Transcoastal Corporation contracted to a Nigerian oil drilling and servicing firm, Conoil and have since been in captivity.

In an online statement made available to Vanguard in Yenagoa titled, “Health of Hostages Deteriorating in Bayelsa,” the leader of the group, Joshua Maciver, vowed to deny the hostages any form of medical treatment, saying the Nigerian state has similarly denied its hero and Ijaw minority rights campaigner, Alhajhi Dokubo-Asari same.

The statement noted, “Dokubo Asari, the Ijaw Minority Rights Campaigner is on his sick bed, tortured, denied medical treatment and placed in solitary confinement, hence there will be no sympathy for any hostage in our custody as they will equally be denied any medical attention.”

The group which last week issued a three day ultimatum to the federal government to release Alhaji Dokubo-Asari failure of which they threatened to kill the oil workers however stated with emphasis that the health of the hostages has worsened insisting that it would make no effort to provide them any medical facility.

“Dokubo is facing life threatening conditions that may lead to his premature death, if he is killed, the hostages will be killed,” the statement warned.
It expressed sadness that help may be too late arriving the way of their leader to right the wrong, and insisted that the hostages must suffer the same treatment meted out to Dokubo by security agents and the Nigerian government.

It would be recalled that six expatriates’ staff of Chevron kidnapped on May 1, 2007 by armed gunmen belonging to the dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) of the Atlantic coast of Koluama in the Southern Ijaw council area of Bayelsa State were last Saturday set free.

Oil State Governors Speak as One

Nigerian state governors from the Niger Delta have called for the release of a detained militant leader in an effort to appease insurgents who have crippled oil production in the anarchic region.

Several armed groups responsible for attacks on oil facilities and kidnappings of oil workers over the past 18 months demand the release of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who has been on trial for treason since September 2005.

The new governors of the three main oil-producing states, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta, said after a meeting with President Umaru Yar'Adua that they had urged him to release Asari. Yar'Adua and the governors took office a week ago.

"We supported the demand for his release at the meeting on health grounds and the government said the demand is being considered," Timipre Sylva, governor of Bayelsa, told reporters after the meeting in Abuja late on Monday.

Yar'Adua used his inaugural speech last week to call for a ceasefire in the delta and promise he would tackle the crisis.

Among armed groups who demand Asari's release is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which was behind most of the attacks that have reduced Nigeria's oil output by over a quarter.

The MEND also demands local control over oil revenues which it says have been stolen or squandered for five decades, as well as compensation for oil spills. These demands reflect broad grassroots sentiment in the impoverished delta, where many residents complain of neglect by successive governments.

The MEND declared a one-month halt in attacks on oil installations on Saturday and said it was prepared to negotiate with the new government through its chosen intermediaries and in the presence of a neutral arbiter.

ABDUCTIONS

The group has already said it would stop abducting oil workers if Asari were released. It also wants the release of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa on trial for corruption, who is receiving medical treatment in Dubai.

"If they (Asari and Alamieyeseigha) are released, we will stop taking hostages but will not interfere with criminal gangs who continue with this until we have sufficient proof the Nigerian government is willing to negotiate on our demands," said the MEND spokesman, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo.

He was referring to numerous "freelance" ransom-seekers who frequently seize expatriate workers in the lawless delta. There are currently 30 foreigners being held by different gangs.

"Until we get this proof, we will continue with pipeline sabotage which we have found out is more distressful to oil companies than the death of their staff," Gbomo said in an email to Reuters this week.

From detention, Asari has called for an end to abductions, which he said were mostly motivated by greed and had "discredited and debased our struggle".

Asari was the leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, a militia that fought battles against Nigerian security forces in the second half of 2004, disrupting oil supplies.

But at the end of 2004 he made a deal with then President Olusegun Obasanjo in which he agreed to lay down arms in return for amnesty. The deal held for most of 2005, until he was arrested on treason charges for saying in a press interview that he wanted Nigeria to break up.

Asari's trial has dragged on from one adjournment to the next and the court has yet to hear a witness or tackle a substantive issue.