Nigeria Security Update #1 010707

Forty-Three Telecom Stations Vandalized

Activities of the militant youths in the Niger Delta have continued to take their hard toll on the telecommunications sector of Nigeria's economy as telecom operators on Friday reported over 43 base stations rendered inactive as a result of vandalisation by the youths.

Telecom operators in the country raised an alarm, saying if something was not done on time, the whole of the region would soon be rendered incommunicado.
They also identified theft of power generators by unknown faces and lack of security provision on the part of the government as partially responsible for the current poor quality service in the country.

Speaking on the floor of Telecom Consumers Parliament Friday evening in Lagos, Mr Wale Goodluck,GM, Regulatory, MTN and Vice President of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria(ALTON), was also unhappy that none of the members of the association had been able to build a base station in the FCT, Abuja in the last 18 months.

Youth Continue to Clash in Rivers State

Fours persons are feared dead and property worth millions of Naira destroyed by armed youths who invaded Nkpor- Rumuolumeni, near Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Saturday's attack, which forced hundreds of persons to flee Rumuolumeni to other parts of Port Harcourt, is said to be a reprisal attack by supporters of the murdered president of Rumuolumeni Youth Council, Golden Isi, who was killed last Monday by some unknown gunmen.

Residents of the area said some armed youths, numbering over 30, invaded the community at about 1:30 am yesterday and embarked on a selective destruction of houses and other valuable properties.

The Guardian learnt that the youths, who freely used dynamites during their attack, also killed four persons among them a man from the neighbouring Ogbogoro community in Obio-Akpor local government area of the state.

A resident of the area, Bright Ikechukwu said the killing of the Ogbogoro man, forced scores of incensed youths from his community to launch a counter attack at Rumuolumeni, which was foiled.

Sources said the attackers' decision to attack Nkpor-Rumuolumeni might have been informed by the belief that some of the suspected killers of Isi might be staying there.

The murder of Isi, who was once a former Vice Chairman of NUPENG and until his demise, a staff of Aker Oil Services Limited, last Monday, spurred a reprisal attack that led to the killing of at least six persons at Rumuolumeni.

The Rivers State Police Command Spokesperson, Mrs. Ireju Barasua confirmed the incident, adding that a police anti-riot contingent had been dispatched to the area.

Cable Thieves Cause Trouble at Airport

There was a mild drama at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed airport on Friday as some Nigerian Airforce men attached to the lounge engaged some airport police men attached to the new terminal 2, under construction, in hot arguments for allegedly trying to collude with two cable thieves caught by the Airforce men.

Trouble started when a member of staff of a construction firm caught with one meter armoured cable and two short length of flexible cable, was trying to sell the cable to some suspected cable thieves.

The culprits had allegedly told the Airforce men that they were searching for scraps only to appear with a different item discovered to be cables.

Luck ran out of the culprits and the worker, when the Airmen manning the entrance of the presidential lounge caught them while trying to escape with the cables.

On sighting the Airmen, the worker took to his heels and the culprits were arrested by the Airforce men.

During interrogation, the policemen attached to the construction site tried to release the culprits, a situation which almost led to an open confrontation between the policemen and Airforce men who insisted that the culprits should not be taken away.

The situation deteriorated when the culprits disclosed that one of the policemen, (name withheld) had allegedly collected a bribe from them, a situation which made the Airmen to go in search of him (the policeman).

Cable theft has become a re-occurring at the MMA.

Recently, some criminals stole a large quantity of cables at the international wing of the airport, which threw the airport into darkness.

When contacted, the police public relations officer at the airport, Frank Mba, confirmed the incident and gave the name of the construction worker simply as, Sunday.

He denied the alleged bribe from the culprits. “The money was recovered from the culprits while we were searching for exhibit.

“The search was conducted to ensure that the culprit did not possess any incriminating items. So, the money was not actually extorted as alleged.

”We hope that the men of the Nigeria Airforce will hand over the culprits to us as soon as they finish with their preliminary investigations,” he added.