Nigerian Army Kills 12 Militant, Frees 27 Hostages (Associated Press)
Troops attacked and overran a Nigerian oil facility Thursday where gunmen were holding some two dozen workers and soldiers hostage, leaving a dozen of the gunmen dead, the military said.
The attack came after midnight at the flowstation run by Italian energy giant Eni SpA in southern Nigeria, said Male Ochaguwuba, a military spokesman. He said 12 of the gunmen who seized the facility on Sunday had been killed, but he had no details on military casualties.
Officials of Eni subsidiary Agip weren't immediately reachable for comment.
The seizure of the Eni-run facility, guarded by Nigerian troops, and the military's counterattack threatened a fuller outbreak of violence in the region where various criminal and militant gangs roam the creeks and swamps in speedboats.
Militants seeking to pressure the federal government to dispense more funds to their region, which remains deeply impoverished, generally sabotage oil installations and rarely launch full assaults on the military.
The military, meanwhile, patrols the same creeks but hasn't yet sent a large attack force in to clear the militants out despite 18 months of rising violence in the region where all the crude is pumped in Africa's biggest producer.
Past military campaigns in the Niger Delta have left villages burned to the ground and sent civilians fleeing. Those were sparked by killing of troops and were widely viewed as reprisal raids that human rights groups criticized.
No major militant group took credit for the seizure of the Eni oil-pipeline intersection center in Bayelsa state. It had been seized after earlier battles between government troops and fighters in the region left several of the fighters dead.
New President Umaru Yar'Adua has moved to calm the region since his May 29 inauguration, when he declared the crisis a major national priority. A top militant leader was released from jail and the government says it's going to convene a summit of federal, local and traditional leaders aimed at a long-term solution.
Militants have said they would hold off on attacks to allow Yar'Adua's government space to plan, but they said the rampant kidnapping of foreigners would likely persist since it's now a simply criminal issue that has been fueled by the payment of ransoms.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest producer of crude and the third-biggest overseas supplier of oil to the United States. The militants' increased activities since December 2005 have cut about a quarter of Nigeria's daily production, helping send oil prices soaring around the world.
Nigerian Navy Accused of Cover-up in Case of Missing Ships (Vanguard)
In what it described as a replay of scandal involving MT African Pride which led to the retirement of two naval generals, a group under the aegis of Coalition Of Nigerian Youths For Good Governance yesterday in Abuja alleged that two crude oil bunkering ships, MT Balle and MT Alruhula, have disappeared from the custody of Nigeria Navy. The ships had been arrested in Calabar and detained by the Nigerian Navy in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The group also alleged the disappearance of another barge which was under the custody of the navy in Port Harcourt too. However, Naval spok-esman, Captain Obioma Medani, has refuted the allegation, saying that an investigative panel was still sitting on the issue.
The group alleged that the ships were arrested in March and June respectively off the Calabar coast by men on board NNS Kyanwa and were subsequently berthed at NNS Pathfinder, Port Harcourt. They allegedly disappeared on June 12. The coalition also accused the police for treating the issue lightly and queried why the past Inspector General of Police Sunday Ehindero who might have had the information was in a hurry "to want to clear all grounds before his handover".However, Police spoke-sman Haz Iwendi, when contacted on phone yesterday, said "the Police had no business and still has no business with the ships. The ships were in the high seas and we don't have the facility to go there and we are not involved in any investigations as regards the ships".
The group made a four-point demand. They asked for the immediate constitution of a public panel of inquiry to look at the disappearance of the two missing ships and other missing vessels, the immediate release of the full report on the findings of all commissions of inquiry on the MT African Pride, an inquiry "to also look deeply into the cases of the immediate past Inspector-General of Police Sunday Ehindero and Navy Captain G. Ajedokun to see if they are connected to the missing vessels and the immediate reorganisation of the nation's maritime security organisation commencing with the immediate removal and prosecution of the Chief of Naval Staff for his incapability to secure the nation's territorial waters."
In a statement yesterday, Medani described the allegations as "untrue".
"On the contrary, an official Board of Inquiry headed by Captain Bimbo Ayuba is presently sitting in Port Harcourt to ascertain the circumstances that led to the incident.
The Board has been tasked to identify anybody who in any way may have contributed to unauthorized movement of the detained vessels.
"Presently, all the officers and ratings who had any connection with the custody of the vessels are presently being held under detention pending the findings of the Board of Inquiry. In addition, the Navy has spread its dragnet to re-arrest the two vessels and from all indications the Navy effort will soon yield result," he said, reinterating that "as a responsible body, the Navy follows the due process in discharging its activities".
Strike Enters Second Day (Press Reports)The loading of oil tankers at Nigerian export terminals continues on the second day of the country's general strike, ship agents and oil company officials have said.
Oil unions had threatened to withdraw staff from the terminals on Thursday to stop exports and exert more pressure on the government to reverse an increase in fuel prices.
"We are not seeing any impact on loadings at the moment," a shipping agent said.
The strike is the first major challenge for Umaru Yar'Adua, the president, who inherited the controversial fuel price increase from his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo.
It has paralysed most economic activity in
But unions have allowed essential operations in the oil industry, which is the country's economic lifeline, to continue.
Peter Akpatason, the head of the NUPENG oil union, said the strike would intensify as time went on.
"Basically the members are complying. As usual, with time, the strike will begin to affect new areas. Production and exports are the last areas to be affected. Since we are in the second day and the government has not moved definitely we have to push deeper and deeper," he said.
Speculation on oil production or export cuts from
Many flights have also been cancelled as airlines feared they would be unable to refill their jets with fuel after they arrived at their destination.
Markets for essential items stayed open, however, and there were no signs of scarcities for food, although prices were rising as demand gained on supply.
Streets deserted
Streets in the main cities were deserted, partly due to an earlier five-day-old strike by road tanker drivers which has left most of the country without fuel.
Some international and domestic flights had been cancelled because of a shortage of jet fuel.
Unionists barricaded streets in
Yar'Adua agreed to reverse the tax increase and to implement a public sector pay rise as demanded by the unions, but talks broke down over the fuel price.
Unions rejected the government's offer to reduce pump prices by four cents a litre, saying only a full reversal of its 10-naira increase would stop the strike.
Corrupt government
Heavy government subsidies keep re-imported petroleum products cheap in a country whose citizens complain they get little else in the way of services from a corrupt government.
Unions launched their strike on Wednesday in the hope of forcing the government to roll back a 15 per cent increase on automobile fuel.
Oil receipts account for about 80 per cent of the
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