Port Harcourt Under Siege (Vanguard)
For many residents, the capital of Rivers State, hitherto the Garden City where life was lived to the fullest is no longer the place to live in as rivers of blood flow ceaselessly following an unending siege by militants, kidnappers, cultists, and criminals of other hue
Violence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has gone full circle and the guns are still booming. The casualties are pilling, even as blood of defenceless citizens flow endlessly. Neither the Police nor the government have answers to the brigandage. Security outfits do not have official figures, record or reliable estimates of casualties in the Rivers State orgy of killings.
kidnappers, cultists, and criminals of other hueViolence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has gone full circle and the guns are still booming. The casualties are pilling, even as blood of defenceless citizens flow endlessly. Neither the Police nor the government have answers to the brigandage. Security outfits do not have official figures, record or reliable estimates of casualties in the Rivers State orgy of killings.
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Even the number of deaths during the Nigerian Civil War had a consensus of informed opinion on the number of deaths, on both sides, which hovered, realistically around 600,000 and below. But the rapidity of casualties in the onslaught by gunmen on Rivers State cannot simply be pigeonholed. The currency of killings is alarming and the growth of the economy of the state is heading for the deep.
The pattern of the crime ranges from kidnapping of expatriates and children of wealthy parentage, to outright violent robbery. Cultism and political vices equally occupy a frightening position on the crime chart. The volatile atmosphere appears to have annulled whatever achievement of the peace and reconciliation committee of the government.
Tragedy stalks merry makers
The most bizarre and complicated of such criminality took place last Monday, July 23. Time was 6.10 pm. The sun was descending in the horizon and was being replaced by a shallow moon. There was a crowd of jolly, merry go-lucky young and old people, clustered around a small house. Music blared from the loudspeakers of car radios, parked along the busy Lumumba/Ojike Streets, in the densely populated Mile I, Diobu area.
By the way, Patrice Lumumba in honour of whom the street was named, assumed leadership in his country in the 1960s, as the first prime minister of post-independent Republic of Congo. He was a politician just like the son of the owner of No 4 Lumumba Street, Port Harcourt. Lumumba died violently and some Hell's Angels planned a similar fate for the newly sworn-in Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Mr. Eldred Billy Braide. The man is counting his blessings now.
Braide and his folks were in party mood, in the family house, over his appointment as commissioner. The house itself, cutting the features of colonialism, is tucked at the intersection of two streets and overlooking the United Evangelical Church, in the opposite direction. With two entrances, punctuated by face-me-I-face-you tenement rooms, the house opens up into a modest courtyard that is lined by bathrooms and conveniences whose doors are made of corrugated roofing sheets.
Gunmen on bikes mount attack
As the party freaks mill in and out of the house, bottles and glasses in hand, a band of five AK-47-clutching young lads rode up and down along the busy street, peeping into the crowd each time they rode past. Then suddenly, Saturday Vanguard gathered that, the five motorcycles rode into the premises and in a flash, the five men, who looked to be in their early 30s secured the place.
"Three of them blocked the busy road, stopping every movement along the street, shooting into the air as they took positions. Two others ransacked the crowd, which gathered at a small drinking place attached to the building, dispossessing them of their phones and money," an eyewitness said. But the unfolding drama totally removed suspicion of robbery as the major reason for the onslaught. It was learnt that shortly after the operation outside, accompanied by rapid burst of gunfire, scores of the party crowd ran into the compound. While the tenants in the house scampered into their rooms, shutting themselves in, the visitors simply wandered about in the yard, searching for space to hide, following which they decided to perch behind drums used in storing water. It was like the ostrich hiding its head in the sand and concluding that it cannot be spotted.
The men and women who used the drums as their shield and thought that they had escaped the gunmen, thought wrong. As the two-some breezed into the compound, they headed straight for the corner where three of the erstwhile merry-makers hid themselves. Standing atop the concrete slabs of a septic tank, the monstrous men pointed the nozzle of their AK-47 riffles at the men, frantically squeezing the triggers and pumping volleys of bullets into them at very close range.
Sitting ducks; mistaken identity
They were defenceless and mere sitting ducks at that instance. When the dust settled, two men, Opali Braide and Obawariboko Iyalla, lay dead. The gunmen casually strolled away, without as much as asking or taking anything away from them. The killers did not search the rooms either, after which they mounted their motorcycles and rolled off towards Uruala Street, also in Diobu. One of the murdered men, Opali, was said to have had a striking resemblance of robust physique with the commissioner. The instant shooting of the man, may have triggered the theory in the city that the men came for the commissioner and not to rob.
Pundits reasoned that the death of Opali was one of mistaken identity. It was suggested also that the robbery was merely a by-product or an indirect consequence of the assassination attempt on the new commissioner's life. Toeing this line of reasoning, the state police commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu said the rampage at the Braide's was a fallout of political grumbling. But the commissioner, Eldred Braide, in whose honour the crowd of merry-makers had formed, left the scene ten minutes earlier. Saturday Vanguard was informed that Eldred had lost the elder sister, two weeks earlier and had not been buried, following which he frequented the family house in preparation for the interment. So, it was double tragedy for the Braide family of Bakana Community of Kalabari extraction in Degema Local Government of Rivers State.
Although one of the dead is a Braide, sources, however, said he was not a sibling of the commissioner and that "Braide is a compound (village) name in Bakana Town. So, they were relations but not from the same womb or parents".
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Fear reigns in Diobu
In Port Harcourt currently, Diobu particularly, the fear of darkness is the beginning of wisdom. As a result, residents of Diobu area of the city approach the night with trepidation. The streets are deserted as early as 8.00 pm, leaving marauders to ply their trade unchallenged. What is more, the residents of No 4 Lumumba Street are a lot more frightened since the incident. It was gathered that women and children do keep their distance from the house once it is nightfall. In fact, a shop owner in the building where the murderers commenced their operation has not returned to her business many days after the operation, "she is not even in the mood to return now or later," a resident volunteered.
All around the compound is a reminder of the fatal visit of the gunmen. Bullet holes on walls and doors of the bathrooms convey the memory of the experience, which has traumatised the psyche of the tenants and visitors alike. The pair of shoes of one of the dead still lie on the slab of the septic tank, where the men had stumbled in search of a corner to conceal themselves from the rampaging assassins. Beside House No 4 on Lumumba Street, is a Suya spot, manned by a man simply called Aboki. As the evil men roared with their AK-47 guns in the premises, Aboki was said to have abandoned his suya and taken off, clutching only his suya knife as he fled. He too, has joined others in observing the self-imposed curfew.
As the killings continue in the city, the state government has assured that it was fully prepared to combat the upsurge in violence while protecting the lives and property of residents. Reacting to the Braide incident, the government, through the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Emmanuel Okah said, "we condemn the attack in very strong terms. We call on the Police to attack the problems in the manner it deserves. Government will assist the Police and other security agencies to function in their duties". Asked about whom the government thought was responsible for the incident, he said "it is only investigation that can prove those responsible for the attack".
How American, Watts, was attacked
Again the attack on the Braides preceded another robbery, in which an American, Prof. Michael Watts, who came into town only a few days earlier, was ambushed at the door of a local newspaper on 'D' Line area of the city. Watts, who is said to be a researcher on the Niger Delta region, had gone to a commercial bank, hoping to cash some money that was being sent to him.
However, the money did not arrive, so Watts headed for the office, only to be accosted by eight gunmen, who demanded that he surrendered the money "you have just withdrawn from the bank". Apparently, he had been trailed by the men, riding on motorcycles, from the bank situated along Olu Obasanjo Road, not too far from where he was attacked. Sources said the academic told the hoodlums that he did not withdraw any money and that all he had on him was six hundred US dollars, which he promptly gave the rogues.
Not convinced, the men gave him a "last warning to surrender the money from the bank", causing the professor to repeat himself that he did not have more than what he had already given them. Angered by the failed robbery, the men opened fire at the American, injuring him on the hand and critically wounding the security man of the newspaper. The police have no answer to that incident yet, just as Ogbaudu said he was yet to know about the robbery, because "the DPO in the area has not briefed me on it".
Gunmen Invade School Kill Teacher (Guardian)
Gunmen stormed Holy Rosary Girls Secondary School in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and shoot dead a senior teacher, Mr. Sunday Egba.
Eyewitnesses at the secondary school told The Guardian that the teacher who was preparing to leave the school at about 2.30pm when he received a call from some unidentified persons who asked to come to the school gate.
One of the students who pleaded anonymity told The Guardian that "he was chatting with us when the call came in. he excused and said he wanted to see some persons who we believe knew. Shortly after he left us, we heard gunshots from the direction of the gate. The next thing we noticed was that people were running."
The Guardian gathered from eyewitnesses that as soon as the agriculture teacher who hails from the war torn Rumuekpe community, came of the gate, three gunmen who were on motorbike opened fire on him. The gunmen after shooting their victim escaped and left him in his pool of blood, he died after minutes later.
The shooting caused mayhem and sent students and teachers running helter skelter for safety. Some of the students told The Guardian that they had to jump over the fence to part of the old GRA area of the city.
Though the cause of Mr. Egba remains shrouded in mystery, sources disclosed to the Guardian that his murder might not be unconnected from the communal crisis plaguing his native Rumuekpe community.
Mr. Egba had dragged some persons who burnt his house in village to court and the matter was yet to be decided before his untimely death.
The Rivers State Police Public Relations officer, Mrs Ireju Barasua who confirmed the killing, said investigation aimed at unraveling the identity of those behind the gruesome murder has commenced.
She disclosed that the police has deposited the remains of the teacher in a morgue in port Harcourt.
The students who were crying and mourning the killing of their teacher have challenged the Rivers State government and the security agents to curb the insecurity and incessant killings in the state, particularly in Port Harcourt.
Series of prominent Rumuekpe indigenes have been killed in same fashion in Port Harcourt in the past two year.
Shell Oil Makes $3 Million an Hour (Free Internet Press)
Royal Dutch Shell has produced a stunning financial performance over the second quarter of the year with profits soaring by 20% to $7.6 billion (£3.7 billion) on the back of very high refining margins and despite a fall in production.
The record results - amounting to some $3 million (£1.5 million) an hour - underlined Shell's current supremacy over arch-rival BP which barely lifted its profits when measured on the same basis.
They also outpaced U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil, which caught Wall Street on the hop Thursday afternoon with a fall in its quarterly profits instead of the expected rise. At $10.3 billion, Exxon's profits remain comfortably ahead of Shell's, however.
The Anglo-Dutch group raised its dividend 14% to $0.36 per share and gave an upbeat assessment of future prospects."We continue to see competitive growth opportunities based on our technological strengths by making disciplined capital choices in an industry landscape of both higher energy prices and higher costs," said chief executive Jeroen van der Veer.
The $7.6 billion earnings were calculated on the current cost of supply basis used by major oil companies but included a net gain from divestments of $660 million. Without that boost, Shell still comfortably beat London expectations even though revenues were almost flat at $85 billion.
Problems in Nigeria and lower demand in Europe due to warmer weather left production falling in the second quarter to 3.1 million barrels a day compared to 3.2 million in the same period of 2006. Total oil production was actually up 1% but gas was down 6%.
Civil unrest in the Niger Delta has left Shell without the 195,000 barrels of oil a day it can produce there and the company admitted "no firm date can be given for a return to full production".
The results were well received, with Shell's "A" shares up by mid-morning, only to be caught up in the afternoon FTSE sell-off. The shares closed down 32 pence to £19.37.
Shell has been going through a strong period of recovery after it was hit by a scandal over the way it had been overstating its reserves to the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and dismissed its then chief executive.
This contrasts with BP, which brought forward the exit of its former boss Lord Browne in May after a series of accidents in the U.S. His successor, Tony Hayward, reported a 12% fall in underlying profits at BP in the second quarter earlier this week.
Shell particularly benefited in the second quarter from very high refining margins while BP had been hit by some of its key refineries being out of action.
Analysts at Citigroup, the investment bank, said the Shell figures showed it was "sitting in the sweat spot" of a benign oil and gas price environment but warned the second half of the year would be tougher.
Broker Kepler Teather & Greenwood Merrion, described the figures as "strong" and said it would be upgrading its end-of-year profit forecasts for Shell while Investec said the next decade promised "rising capex (capital expenditure), modest growth and the promise of better things next decade".
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