Nigeria Security Update #1 140607

Troops kill 8 militants in delta

Nigerian troops killed eight suspected militants near an Italian-operated oil field in the Niger delta, authorities said on Wednesday.

The killings in Bayelsa state on Tuesday came days after militant groups released 19 hostages as part of a nascent peace initiative between the government and the rebel groups.

"They attacked our troops guarding an Agip flow station at Ogbainbiri and in the encounter they sustained casualties, about eight men," said a spokesman for the military in the region, Omale Ochagwuba.

Oil output from the Ogbainbiri field, which feeds the Brass export terminal also in Bayelsa state, was unaffected, a spokesman for the unit of Italian oil company ENI said.

Newly inaugurated Nigerian president, Umaru Yar'Adua, has begun preliminary contacts with militants in the delta in the hope of ending a wave of kidnappings and attacks on oil fields that have cut production by a quarter.

Militant groups say they are fighting for more autonomy in the impoverished region, compensation for oil spills and the release of two leaders from the region.

One of those leaders, former militia boss Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, returns to court on Thursday to face treason charges.

Activists involved in the contacts with government believe Asari will be freed on bail on Thursday, opening the way to more substantive talks with the government.

Yar’Adua tasks governors on return of oil multinationals

President Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua has directed the governors of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states to ensure early return of the oil multinationals to their shut facilities in their states.

Yar‘Adua reportedly told Governor Timipre Silva-Sam of Bayelsa State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and Mr. Celestine Omehia of Rivers State, that the country could not survive endless closure of oil facilities.

A reliable source in Government House, Asaba, informed our correspondent that Yar‘Adua on Tuesday directed the governors to create an enabling environment for the oil majors, especially Shell Petroleum Development Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited to return to their abandoned fields in the states within the shortest possible time.

The Dutch oil firm alone shut production platforms producing over 500,000 barrels per day since February 2006.

Concerted efforts by the Dutch firm to return to the fields were rebuffed by the Niger Delta militants.

Findings by our correspondent revealed that Uduaghan apparently in obedience to the presidential directive, summoned a special security council meeting on Wednesday to discuss the re-entry process by the oil majors.

The meeting, held in Warri, was attended by the Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope, Brig.-Gen. Lawrence Ngubane, the Commanding Officer, NNS Delta, Warri Naval Base, Navy Capt. Mufutau Ajibade, his 93 Battalion counterpart, Lt. Col. Danjuma Ali-Kefi, and Commissioner of Police, State Command, Mr. Hezekiah Dimka.

It was learnt that some members of the Delta Waterways Security Committee, recently inaugurated by Uduaghan, attended the meeting held at Governor‘s Office Annex, Warri.

Investigation by our correspondent further revealed that Uduaghan intimated the service commanders about the position of the President and urged them to fashion out measures to restore confidence in the managements of the oil firms so that they could return to the fields.

Our source said, ”Mr. President has directed the governors of the Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states to do all within their powers to ensure that the oil companies resume oil exploration and exploitation in their respective states with immediate effect.

”Already, Delta State governor has initiated moves in compliance with the presidential directive,” added a government house source, who craved anonymity.

Our correspondent sighted some top officials of SPDC at the venue of the meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

The team, led by SPDC‘s Corporate Relations Manager, Mr. Harriman Oyofo, also included the Manager, Community Relations, Mr. Donald Ovwredjor, and two foreign nationals, whose status could not be ascertained before press time.

They were waiting to be invited into the meeting when our correspondent departed the venue.

Although Uduaghan could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, one of his aides confirmed the report. The aide, who craved anonymity, said his boss was on top of the development.

Uduaghan, during a press briefing last week Wednesday, said Yar‘Adua had directed the governors of the three states to restore sanity to the areas.


Shell denies moves to relocate headquarters from Port Harcourt to Lagos

Shell Petroleum Development Company has said that it has no plans whatsoever in relocating its corporate headquarters from Port Harcourt to Lagos or anywhere else, stating that, if for anything, the company would bring more staff to the Rivers State capital.

Debunking the speculations making the rounds regarding the movement, Acting Media Manager, SPDC, Mr. Precious Okolobo said there was “no iota of truth in the speculations that SPDC has concluded plans to move its headquarters to Lagos”.

At the External Affars Director’s Media Executive’s roundtable in Port Harcourt, Tuesday, Okolobo said it was “pure fallacy and tissue of lies”, that the company was at the verge of closing its entire operations and moving personnel out of the Niger-Delta region.

Although the rumour and wild speculations have been attributed to the mounting insecurity propelled by the frightening spate of kidnapping and hostage-takings and huge brigandage, the Shell spokesman said the statements were in the minds of the authors.

At no time, he said, did the company comtemplate or even muted the plan of relocating its head base from Port Harcourt, adding, “it has never crossed management’s mind” that it would look in that direction since the headquarters was shifted down to the state in 2004.

“The Shell management believes that the company was a citizen of the region and therefore, would not leave the people of the region to grapple with the problems of the area alone, come rain, come shine.”

Okolobo, however, acknowledged that the outfit was disposed to assisting, for safety sake, “expatriates working with the company who wish to relocate to Lagos or Abuja”, consequent upon the bad situation in the region.

The decision, he said, was the fallout of the various pieces of advice from countries whose nationals were in the region, to relocate to safer areas and secure cities for their own benefits. He then appealed to those concerned to restore law and order “to facilitate the development process of the region”.

Aerocontractors’ Nigerian pilots, engineers down tools

Nigerian pilots and engineers working with Aerocontractor Airlines on Wednesday, embarked on strike that left hundreds of its passengers across the nation stranded.

The workers were protesting what they described as the management’s preferential treatment of expatriates to the detriment of their Nigerian counterparts.

According to them, several letters had been written to the management on the declining conditions of service and welfare as it affected Nigerian pilots and engineers but the management failed to respond.

Aerocontractors is a key player in the Nigerian aviation industry servicing the oil and gas industry.

The airline has two Boeing 237-400, two 737-300, five dash 8-300 and 16 helicopters.

The airline also operated and maintained aircraft for oil companies like Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Addressing aviation correspondents in Lagos, the National Vice-President of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, Kayode Owolabi, said their grievances included a call for six-weeks on-and-six-weeks-off duty for Nigerian engineers as enjoyed by their foreign counterparts.

They are also calling for incentive pay allowance of about N19,200/N12,800 as approved by the head office in Canada and enjoyed by their foreign counterparts.

Owolabi said, “Aerocontractors management granted expatriates a compensation for Extended Tour/Deferred Leave while nothing is done for the Nationals”.

He stated that the airline’s management had made Warri Operational Base, an exclusive right of the expatriate pilots and engineers for selection and promotion to the position of base manager.

He added, “Similarly, arrangements are under way to make Agip Base operation an exclusive right of the Portuguese expatriates by getting them accelerated multiple type ratings/trainings,” he said.

“It is obvious that Aerocontractors has portrayed to Nigerians and indeed the Federal Government of Nigeria its continued inability to produce competent Nigerians to occupy professional positions after 40 years of operation in the country,” Owolabi said.

The union also accused the management of biased training programme for engineers, arguing that there was a wide disparity between the expatriates and their Nigerian counterparts.

It urged management of Aero to consider the propriety of looking into the issues by way of proffering lasting solutions.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director, Aero, Mr. Koen Neven, said negotiations were still ongoing with the union. He, however, hoped it would be resolved on Thursday (today).

Nigeria's malnourished throng Niger's feeding centres

Emergency feeding centres for malnourished children in Niger, the poorest country in the world, are drawing a growing numbers of mothers with malnourished children from oil-rich Nigeria who cross the border in search of medical help not available at home.

"In Nigeria, the government health infrastructure has completely collapsed in rural areas," said Ben Foot, Nigeria programme manager for Save the Children. "Even when there are drugs and equipment available people have to pay and they can't afford them."

At least 20 percent of children being treated in some of Save the Children's feeding centres in southern Niger's Maradi Region, across the border from northern Nigeria, are Nigerian. Other aid agencies in Niger said that close to the Niger-Nigeria border up to 90 percent of children being given nutritional supplements, vaccinations and free healthcare come from Nigeria.

Northern Nigeria and neighbouring Niger share the same semi-arid climate and reliance on rain-fed subsistence agriculture.

Nationally in Nigeria 29 percent of children are considered underweight, according to statistics drawn up by the UN children's agency (UNICEF). Many other key indicators which contribute to malnutrition are worse in Nigeria than Niger as well as many other countries in the Sahel.

The north of Nigeria reportedly has at least twice the level of malnutrition and child mortality than Nigeria's south.

But in Niger, a flood of donor funds for nutrition projects has led to a rapid improvement in children's health following major publicity for a nutritional crisis in 2005.

In some parts of Maradi Region, death rates among children under five have reduced to the same levels as in the US because of micronutrient supplements, the education of women on breast feeding, improved access to clean water and large numbers of donor-funded NGOs.

Nigeria's chief nutritionalist at the ministry of health in Kano State, Saratu Abdullah, claimed there was absolutely no malnutrition in Nigeria. "We don't have malnourished children in this country," she said.

The government has not conducted a reliable nutritional survey since 2003. Save the Children's Foot said that the few other surveys that have been done in the region are "unreliable and pushing someone's agenda".

"The situation is clearly appalling but there's no hard data yet," Foot said.

Aid agencies have recorded Nigerians needing nutritional assistance in Niger since at least 2005, when Medecins sans Frontiers briefly set up a feeding centre in northern Nigeria's Katsina state to try to curb the flow of malnourished Nigerian children into Niger and to respond to a high level of malnutrition in Nigeria that year resulting from a measles epidemic.

But since then there have been few international NGO operating in northern Nigeria.

"Because of its oil riches people think Nigeria should be able to look after itself. But the government has been ripping the country off for the last 20 years, stripping resources and only taking care of its elite," Foot, from Save the Children, said.

Aid agency officials in Niger have said privately that they are concerned about making the issue of Nigerians coming to Niger public as it could prompt the Nigerian government to close the border or the authorities in Niger to scale down nutrition-related projects.

For Foot it is nonetheless better to acknowledge that there are problems in Nigeria. "The drift of malnourished Nigerians into Niger could be an indication of how many more Nigerians are barely surviving," he said.