Nigeria Security Update

Navy Battles Militants

2008-11-11T19:41:00.002Z

A stand-off that lasted for over 30 minutes was said to have ensued when the naval officers noticed the sudden movement and the simultaneous opening of fire with automatic weapons by the rebels, and had to return fore for fire.

Even though they managed to kill one of the navy personnel, the rebels were curtailed and forced into hasty retreat, fleeing in different directions, by the men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) who sank one of the boats carrying 12 militants.

Spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Colonel Sagir Musa said the rebels’ aim was to destroy the facility and take the arms of the personnel there, but that they met them on red alert.

‘The militants attacked the facility and wanted to destroy it and disrupt production but were overwhelmed. We sank one of their boats; the attack failed. We however lost one personnel, but the facility is on and producing without disruption,’ Colonel Musa said.

(Afrik.com)

Government Says Six Gunmen Killed

2008-11-11T19:34:00.000Z

Nigerian security forces killed six unidentified gunmen in the oil-rich Niger Delta region and recovered weapons used by the attackers, a military spokesman said.

The assailants used six speedboats to stage a raid yesterday morning on a military installation near the Soku gas plant, about 15 miles west of Port Harcourt, Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the task force in charge of security in the region, said in an interview. A machine gun, three AK-47 assault rifles and one FN rifle were seized.

``The attack was aimed at crippling our position, taking away our arms and ammunition and damaging the gas plant,'' Musa said. ``Our men are in full control of the area. There is no cause for alarm.''

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and attacks by armed groups in the southern delta, which accounts for nearly all of the country's output, have cut more than 20 percent of exports since 2006. While groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, claim to be fighting for more local access to oil wealth, others kidnap oil workers for ransom.

In an attack in September, MEND said it destroyed parts of the Soku gas plant, which is owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc. On Sept. 21, the group declared a cease-fire ``until further notice'' in the delta region.

(Bloomberg)

Hostages Captured off Cameroon In Good Health

2008-11-03T15:22:00.001Z

Ten oil workers taken hostage off Cameroon's coast are "in good health", the leader of the West African rebels who kidnapped the men told AFP Sunday.

"The hostages are in good health. They are being looked after and remain safe," said Ebi Dari, the chief of the Bakassi Freedom Fighters, over the phone, while adding the group had had no contact with Cameroon's government.

"They (the government) know what we want. We sent our demands three months ago and have received no response. We want to meet them. That's why we took hostages," he said.

On Saturday, Dari told AFP the rebel group had "changed its mind" about plans to kill the workers, saying they would keep them hostage "for a very long time."

The Bakassi Freedom Fighters, opposed to Cameroon's takeover of the Bakassi Peninsula from Nigeria, had threatened on Friday to kill the hostages "one by one" unless the government agreed to reopen talks on the oil-rich territory's status.

They seized the 10 oil workers -- six French, one Franco-Senegalese, two Cameroonians and one Tunisian - in a pre-dawn pirate attack Friday on an industry support vessel working off the coast of Cameroon.

"We have not done this for money," said Dari. "People in Bakassi are suffering."
Neighbouring Nigeria ceded Bakassi to Cameroon in August after a ruling by the International Court of Justice brought to an end a 15-year dispute over the peninsula, including rights to its oil fields and fishing grounds.

The handover was completed peacefully, but some local groups opposed the change of sovereignty and threatened attacks.

The Bakassi Freedom Fighters, part of a shadowy group dubbed the Niger Delta Defence and Security Council, claimed responsibility in June and July for attacks that killed seven

Cameroonian troops and a local official.

(APF)

Construction Worker Kidnapped

2008-11-03T15:18:00.000Z

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a Lebanese construction worker in the southern Nigerian oil industry hub of Port Harcourt on Monday, police and a private security source in the city said.

"A Lebanese was kidnapped by gunmen this morning but our men are on their trail," police spokeswoman Rita Inoma-Abbey said.

The security source said the man was employed by an engineering company which is working on a road project in the Choba suburb of Port Harcourt, the main city in the Niger Delta, which is home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry.

The region has long been racked by insecurity, particularly since militants launched a campaign of violent sabotage against the oil industry two years ago to push for a greater share of the wealth generated by five decades of oil extraction.

Heavily-armed criminal gangs, funded by a lucrative trade in stolen oil, have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order to stage robberies and kidnappings for ransom.

Several hundred foreigners have been seized since early 2006 but most have been released unharmed.

(Reuters)

Shell Employees Kidnapped

2008-11-03T15:15:00.001Z

Bayelsa State police command has commenced investigation into the alleged kidnap of two officials of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) along Okordia/Zarama road in the old Yenagoa local government area of the state.

The kidnapped officers were identified as Mr. Michael Obikaun and Mrs. Favour Dappah of the inspectorate division of the Anglo Dutch oil giant, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

According to a statement issued by the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Iniobong Ibokette (DSP), the kidnappers trailed the officials from Port Harcourt and finally swooped on them along the Okordia/Zarama road.

The kidnappers armed with dangerous weapons, were said to have shot indiscriminately into the air ostensibly to frighten away any would be intruder before whisking them away in a dark brown Mercedes Benz 190 E car to an unknown destination.

Vanguard reliably learnt that the kidnapped officials were on supervision of on-going electrification project at Okordia/Zarama community.

“The state command is making concerted efforts to track down the perpetrators of the heinous crime,” said the state police public relations officer.

Reacting to the development, the people of Okordia kingdom yesterday condemned the abduction of the SPDC supervisors executing the electrification project in the area.

The traditional ruler of the kingdom, King Richard Seibai in an interview with newsmen described the action as barbaric and anti-development especially at a time efforts are being made to provide sustainable development.

He pleaded with the state government to come to their aid and arrest the situation by bringing the culprits to book and promised to work with government to arrest the situation.

The king also appealed to government to deploy officers of the Joint Task Force to beef up security in the kingdom and for Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to prevail on its workers to return to site.

(Vanguard)

Children of Oil Worker Kidnapped in P.H.

2008-10-29T13:26:00.000Z

Gunmen on Tuesday kidnapped two children of a Nigerian oil worker in Port Harcourt, the country's oil hub, the police said.Rivers state police spokesperson Rita Abbey said Chinonso and Uchechi Ajanaku were abducted on their way to school and taken to an unknown location.No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, the latest in recent months.Oil-rich Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings of local and foreign workers and relatives of prominent politicians in the past two years, often by criminal gangs seeking a ransom, but sometimes also for political ends.

Pirate Problem Persists

2008-10-29T13:19:00.001Z

The United Nations has called for an international response to a growing threat from seaborne pirates attacking oil facilities, ships and towns on or around the coast of West Africa.
Western and other nations have already sent warships to fight the pirates threatening shipping off the Horn of Africa.

But on the other side of the continent, heavily-armed gunmen in fast launches have in the last year preyed on oil plants, oil and fishing boats and even coastal towns in a region grouping the main African suppliers of crude oil to the West and China.

Seaborne raiders initially focused on Nigeria's Niger Delta, where militants are battling the government over oil revenues. But more recently raiders have robbed banks and confronted security forces in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Benin.

"There is indeed a common threat in the Gulf of Guinea and there is a need for a collective response to that threat," Ambassador Said Djinnit, the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for West Africa, told Reuters.

In an interview late on Tuesday, Djinnit said the problem straddled both West and Central Africa, which share the Gulf of Guinea. He urged navies from the United States and Europe to help local security forces with training, patrol vessels and equipment.

"I believe there must also be a role for the U.N. at some point, in trying to mobilise the countries of the region and major stakeholders in facilitating a concerted, integrated approach," he added, speaking in Cape Verde on the sidelines of a West African conference on drug-trafficking.

He said criminal activity in the Gulf of Guinea had become intertwined with local insurgencies.
"Armed groups ... are perceived to be bandits initially, and then they start making some political claims ... so it's a new area where pirates, bandits essentially, have seen an opportunity in the prevailing insecurity, in the so-called marginalisation of some regions, and in conflict," he said.

BANDITS, REBELS OR BOTH?

He said the lawlessness was comparable with Somalia; the Sahel region encompassing northern Niger and Mali; and the region where the borders of Chad, Central African Republic and Cameroon meet.

Here too, local rebellions were enmeshed with widespread smuggling and the activities of highway bandits, known locally in French as "coupeurs de route".

Recent attacks by armed men in speedboats on soldiers in Cameroon's border peninsula of Bakassi, which was formally ceded by neighbouring Nigeria in August, have been claimed by little-known groups calling themselves the Niger Delta Defence and Security Council or the Bakassi Freedom Fighters.

Their commanders have said in public statements they are fighting for compensation for Nigerian fishermen and their families who say they are being forced to leave the peninsula, which is reported to have significant oil reserves.

But some security experts believe they could be marauding Nigerian oil militants carrying their guerrilla war from the creeks of the Niger Delta over the eastern border into Cameroon.

"The security problem in Bakassi is related to the security problem in the Niger Delta and the larger Gulf of Guinea," Djinnit added. He said a distinction should be made between real grievances over local governance issues and sheer banditry.

In late September, armed raiders, believed by Cameroon to have come from Nigeria, stormed ashore from speedboats under cover of darkness to blast their way into banks in the Cameroonian coastal town of Limbe. They killed one person, fought off soldiers and carried away cash.

Since then, Nigeria and Cameroon have pledged to cooperate to improve border security. The United States said last week it was providing Angola with ships, radar and intelligence to prevent it becoming a target of seaborne crime.

Nigeria has in the past contributed 18 percent of U.S. oil imports but that share has been reduced by Niger Delta violence. Experts say the Gulf of Guinea as a whole is expected to supply 25 percent of U.S. oil needs in coming years.

(Reuters)

News Blogger Detained in Abuja

2008-10-23T14:30:00.002Z

A US-based Nigerian news blogger is being held without charge by Nigeria's secret service.
Jonathan Elendu was taken into custody on Saturday when he arrived in the capital, Abuja, on a family visit.

The State Security Service (SSS) has refused to allow his lawyers access to him and denied him a medical visit.

Elendureports.com is one of a number of diaspora-run "citizen reporting" websites about Nigeria and is known for publishing controversial stories.

According to Nigerian law anyone arrested must be charged in court within 48 hours, but correspondents say the rule is frequently broken.

The SSS told Mr Elendu's lawyer that Mr Elendu had not been "arrested", but "invited" for talks at their headquarters.

There haven't been many really controversial stories about the president on Elendureports.com in the last few months according to Lawyer Ugo Muoma

An SSS spokesman said he was being investigated for "acts of sedition", but refused to give details.

Spokesman Kene Chukwu also told the BBC that Mr Elendu's detention had followed legal rules.

"I am telling you all the legal rules were followed, and you have to accept it," Mr Chukwu said.

Mr Elendu's lawyer says he has not spoken to his client since his arrest.

"They have not pressed any charges and have not allowed anyone to see him," said Ugo Muoma.

He said he was filing papers in court to force the SSS to charge or release Mr Elendu.

Elendureports.com operates from Lansing in Michigan and publishes often controversial stories about Nigerian politicians, accusing some of them of corruption and other crimes.
Their stories are often based on anonymous sources.

President's son

Another US-based Nigerian news website, Saharareporters.com, quotes anonymous sources as saying Mr Elendu may have been arrested because of photographs it published a few months ago showing President Umaru Yar'Adua's son.

Elendureports.com once mistakenly reported that Mr Yar'Adua had died

The Saharareporters.com pictures, which caused a stir in the local media at the time, showed 13-year-old Musa Yar'Adua waving wads of money around and holding a policeman's gun.

But Saharareporters.com says Mr Elendu is not a member of their staff and has nothing to do with the photographs.

International media rights groups Reporters Without Borders has called for Mr Elendu's release.
"There haven't been many really controversial stories about the president on Elendureports.com in the last few months," said Mr Muoma.

During the election campaign in 2007, Elendureports.com claimed that Mr Yar'Adua had died during a medical trip to Germany.

Two foreign journalists have been detained and deported by the SSS for reporting in the politically sensitive oil-rich Niger Delta region over the last few months.

In September, six local reporters and media executives were detained and questioned after a television channel reported, after receiving a hoax e-mail, that the president planned to resign.

(BBC)

Pirates Seize Fishing Boats

2008-10-17T17:25:00.000Z

Pirates still in action not in Somalia but in Nigeria, whose waters are considered to be the second most dangerous in the world after the ones of the Horn of Africa country. According to shipping company sources , the pirates, within a few hours, attacked and seized eight fishing boats in the open sea off the coast of the southern state of Bavelsa. They took a total of 96 members of the various crews as prisoners . Presently their fate is unknown. According to IMB (the International Maritime Bureau), the number of piracy episodes ascertained at a world level during the first six months of 2008 add up to at least 114, a little less than the 126 cases registered during the same period of last year. Since June though, there has been a further and remarkable increase in boarding attempts.

(AGI)

Navy Attacked

2008-10-16T13:19:00.001Z

Gunmen in speedboats attacked Nigerian navy vessels guarding the country's main crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals on Wednesday, the Nigerian military and security sources said.

The attackers hit gunboats protecting Bonny Island in the Niger Delta, home to an LNG terminal whose exports make up close to 10 percent of world supply and to Nigeria's biggest crude oil export facility, operated by Royal Dutch Shell.

"The intention was likely to surprise our troops, capture arms, ammunition and if possible snatch our gunboat," Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the joint military taskforce in the delta, told Reuters.

He said six speedboats had attacked navy gunboats close to the LNG terminal but that the gunmen were repelled. A member of the taskforce was wounded and several of the attackers were killed when two of their boats were sunk, Musa said.

No group has claimed responsibility.

The strike in the very heart of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry is the first since the region's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), announced a ceasefire last month after a plea from elders.

The ceasefire followed six straight days of attacks in the eastern delta which forced Shell to warn it could not guarantee to meet oil export obligations from Bonny.

Industry executives say continued insecurity, as well as chronic funding problems hampering joint ventures with the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), mean production is stagnating in the world's eighth-biggest exporter.

Nigeria's foreign minister said this week that oil output was down to 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), although the oil minister put the figure at 2 million bpd a few weeks earlier.

THREAT TO LNG

Militants in the Niger Delta have shut down around a fifth of Nigeria's oil production since early 2006 with a campaign of pipeline bombings and attacks on oil facilities, but the country's LNG exports have largely escaped the violence.

LNG is made by cooling and condensing gas to a liquid that is one six-hundredth its normal volume. It is shipped in special tankers to markets including Europe and the United States, and is generally considered more secure than oil exports.

Strong global demand for LNG as an alternative energy supply, particularly as volatile oil prices add to havoc in consumer economies, has heightened interest in Nigeria's gas reserves, estimated at 180 trillion cubic feet.

But insecurity is a major deterrent to new investment.

A worker in the Bonny LNG plant said he heard shooting which seemed to be less than half a kilometre from his living quarters. A private security source working in the oil industry said the assailants had fled into the narrow creeks around Bonny Island and that they may return for another strike.

Shell said it could not immediately confirm any details.

Bonny, in the southern Niger Delta, is home to Nigeria's only functioning LNG plant, controlled by a group of Western companies including Shell, Total and Eni unit Agip. State oil firm NNPC owns 49 percent.

It is also home to Nigeria's biggest single crude oil export terminal by volume, which is owned by SPDC, a joint venture in which Shell holds 30 percent and NNPC holds 55 percent. Local subsidiaries of Total and Agip hold the rest.

(Reuters)

Dynamite, Arms Recovered

2008-10-16T13:16:00.002Z

The Nigerian military said on Thursday it had recovered dynamite, arms and ammunition from gunmen who attacked navy vessels guarding the country's main crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals.

The attackers hit gunboats late on Wednesday guarding Bonny Island, home to an LNG terminal whose exports make up close to 10 percent of world supply and to Nigeria's biggest crude oil export facility, operated by Royal Dutch Shell.

"One general purpose machine gun, one AK-47 rifle, one sub-machine gun, assorted ammunition ... and some quantity of dynamite were recovered from the militants," said Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, a military spokesman in the Niger Delta.

The attack in the heart of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry was the first significant strike since the region's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), announced a ceasefire last month.

No group has claimed responsibility.

The LNG plant at Bonny is controlled by Western companies including Shell, Total and Eni unit Agip. State oil firm NNPC owns 49 percent.

Bonny is also home to Nigeria's biggest single crude oil export terminal by volume, which is owned by SPDC, a joint venture in which Shell holds 30 percent and NNPC holds 55 percent.
Local subsidiaries of Total and Agip hold the rest.

(Reuters)

Nigeria & Cameroon Pledge Cooperation on Border Security

2008-10-14T13:20:00.001Z

Nigeria and Cameroon have agreed to work together to protect their land and sea border from attacks by militants and pirates and to fight illegal trafficking of arms, drugs, oil products and migrants.

Minutes seen by Reuters on Monday from a weekend meeting in Yaounde of a joint commission of the oil-producing Gulf of Guinea neighbours pledged closer security cooperation along their 1,700 km (1,062-mile) frontier, including joint patrols.

The 12-page document said the measures would seek to respond to "cross-border attacks by militants, illicit arms sales, illegal bunkering of petroleum products, contraband, incessant militant and pirate attacks both within territorial and international waters of the two countries, drugs and human trafficking, as well as activities of armed resistance groups".

Authorities in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, are fighting a war against Niger Delta militants who often use fast launches to attack army posts and oil installations, sometimes striking at ships and rigs far out to sea in the Gulf of Guinea.

Cameroon is worried about this violence spilling over into its own territory and the government announced on Sunday it was reinforcing security on its own 360 km (225-mile) Atlantic coastline by installing radar and stepping up military patrols.

This followed an attack on September 28 against the Cameroonian coastal town of Limbe in which armed raiders in speedboats stormed ashore and robbed four banks, killing one person.
In their talks, Cameroon and Nigeria agreed to set up a cross-border security body that would establish joint patrols, collaborate in sharing intelligence and investigating crime and undertake joint search and rescue operations if the need arose.

The attack on Limbe was at least the third sea-borne raid of its kind in less than a year on Gulf of Guinea neighbours of Nigeria. Equatorial Guinea and Benin had reported similar raids.

BORDER VIOLENCE

Speaking in Limbe on Sunday, Cameroon's prime minister, Ephraim Inoni, said the September 28 attack surprised the security forces, who he said were under-staffed and poorly equipped.
"That is why we have decided to create a maritime brigade in Limbe, increase the number of forces of law and order there, and to launch radar surveillance of our coastline," he said.

Last month's raiders on Limbe, described as "suspected pirates" by Cameroon state radio, shot dead a local driver and used explosives to blast their way into banks, seizing large sums of money. They barricaded roads into the town, repelled Cameroonian soldiers and shot up the local prefect's office.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Cameroon state radio said a sack marked "Port Harcourt Flour Mill Ltd" was left in one bank, suggesting the raiders could be from Nigeria's Niger Delta, where Port Harcourt is a main city.

In August, Nigeria formally handed over control to Cameroon of the oil-rich Bakassi border pensinsula in line with a 2002 International Court of Justice order.

About 50 people have been killed in violence in Bakassi in the past year, including attacks on Cameroonian soldiers.

Worried about insecurity, the navies of the United States and other Western countries have stepped up visits to the area.

The United States imports more than 15 percent of its oil needs from the Gulf of Guinea and this is expected to increase to more than 25 percent by 2015.

(Reuters)

Five Filipino Hostages Released

2008-10-13T13:15:00.001Z

Five Filipino workers kidnapped from an oil services vessel in southern Nigeria nine days ago have been released unharmed, a military spokesman said on Monday.

The Filipinos were seized on October 4 between the oil hub of Port Harcourt and Bonny in the Niger Delta by about a dozen gunmen. Security sources originally said six had been kidnapped, including the boat's captain and two engineers.

"They have been released," Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the military taskforce in the Niger Delta, said.

He had no further immediate details.

A security source in the region said the five Filipinos were safe and well and had been taken to the Philipinne embassy in the capital Abuja.

Hundreds of foreigners have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, since militants launched a campaign of violence two years ago.

Almost all have been released unharmed. But the insecurity, including the bombing of pipelines and attacks on oil and gas plants, has cut Nigeria's oil production by around a fifth and forced some foreign firms to scale back their operations.

(Reuters)

Cholera Outbreak Reported in Kano State

2008-10-11T13:14:00.001Z

A cholera outbreak has claimed 20 lives in northern Nigeria's Kano state in the last week, officials and residents said Saturday.

"We have received reports of a cholera outbreak in Rikadawa village in the last week where 20 lives have been lost with about 70 others hospitalised", Ibrahim Muazu, Madobi local government chairman, told AFP.

Residents of the 3,000-strong village, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Kano, said the oubreak started when they started drinking water from a river outside the village because three of the four boreholes in the village were spoilt.

"With the breakdown of three of the four boreholes in the village, we turned to the Kunza river as our source of water and since then we started noticing people falling sick with cholera," said 70-year-old Malam Alhaji Dauda, who lost five grandchildren in the last two days.

Muazu said he had sent personnel to assess the situation and fix the broken boreholes.
Last month about 100 people died of cholera in four northen states.

Cholera is an intestinal bacteria that causes serious diarrhoea and vomiting leading to dehydration. With a short incubation period, it can be fatal if not treated in time.

(AFP)

MEND Cease Fire Threatened

2008-09-25T13:20:00.002Z

The recent ceasefire by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), was yesterday threatened, following a alleged air raids by operatives of the Joint Military Taskforce on the camps of two militia groups, the Niger Delta Patriotic Force (NDPF) and the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV).

This is coming few hours after the leadership of the Action Congress (AC) in Rivers State urged Nigerians to pray for the ceasefire called by MEND to be permanent, so as to allow for the continuation of on-going projects across the oil and gas region.

An online statement issued yesterday and signed by MEND spokesman Gbomo Jomo, and made available to Daily Champion alleged that an air raid was carried out by the Air Force arm of the JTF, saying it may provoke other militia groups into engaging in another 'unprecedented war along the creeks and waterways of the region."

The statement read in part: "About 1730 Hrs on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, the Nigerian military still seething with anger from the humiliating defeat in the six-day oil war, launched an unprovoked air assault on the camps of the Niger Delta Patriotic Force (NDPF) and Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) in an attempt to destabilize the on-going ceasefire.

"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) condemns this cowardly act and will not play into the hands of the military by retaliating and putting the peace process in jeopardy at this time. It is a well known fact that the Joint Task "Fraud" (JTF) is desperate to showcase its relevance as they will be quickly out of business in an atmosphere of peace.

"Like their cousins the Nigeria Police who stage spates of robberies whenever there is a public outcry for the removal of check points on the road, the military stages such attacks to hoodwink the state governors for additional funding. We also suspect that a peaceful Niger Delta is not beneficial to a section of the country who may want to alter the constitution again in the event that the President may resign due to his ailing health".

"Tropical Storm Vigilant, our heightened state of alert, is still on course and the military and oil companies will soon be hearing from us at the appropriate time. MEND can not vouch for the actions this group may take. We will however use this medium to notify the public on developments as they unfold".

But the Rivers State chapter of the AC through its publicity secretary, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, prayed that the ceasefire called by MEND lasts longer for the region to witness growth.

He said "We just pray that this cease-fire becomes permanent as no meaningful development can take place in war-like situation as the Niger Delta region has been turned into recently.

"With this development, the Federal Government has no further reason to delay moving the relevant machinery and personnel to Niger Delta to hasten the development of a region so wickedly neglected by the past Governments at the centre and the region.

"Julius Berger Plc should commence work immediately on its abandoned projects particularly the dualisation of East-West road that has become a death trap and the fly-over construction at Eleme Junction that means a lot to the people of Rivers State."

He said the period of peace should be used by the government to intensify job creation, revamping and reviving of our moribund industries, improving on our decaying infrastructure and showing signs that Rivers State belongs to all sons and daughters of Rivers State."

(Daily Champion)

NUPENG Threatens Strike Against Chevron

2008-09-25T13:16:00.001Z

A local branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, or NUPENG, in Nigeria said Wednesday it would begin a strike at Chevron Nigeria Ltd. - a local unit of U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. (CVX) - if the company failed to resolve some labor issues by Oct. 1.

Bernard Ugbi, NUPENG's assistant general secretary in the southern oil city of Warri, said Chevron has been given a 14-day ultimatum to resolve issues on union workers hired and working at all CNL locations in the country as contractors.

He said NUPENG opposed the employment of its members as contractors, adding that the 3,000-5,000 workers involved usually don't qualify for pension, gratuities and other benefits.

He said the contractors were doing the same work as permanent Chevron staff who qualified for pension and other benefits adding: "We want the same for the contract workers."

Ugbi said NUPENG at the national level would join any strike launched by the Warri chapter.
CNL said it was engaging with all parties to resolve the issues through dialogue and respect for rule of law.

A Chevron spokesman in Nigeria contacted by Dow Jones declined to comment further.

(CNNMoney.com)

MEND Decries Government Attacks

2008-09-24T13:30:00.002Z

Nigeria's main oil militant group has accused the army of launching air attacks on its allies' camps.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) declared a unilateral ceasefire three days ago.

A Nigerian army spokesman told the BBC that he was unaware of any air strikes on Tuesday.
Mend said it would not be drawn by military tactics into jeopardising the peace process and would continue observing its ceasefire.

Groups such as Mend claim to be fighting for greater control over oil wealth in the impoverished Niger Delta, but they are accused of making money from criminal rackets and trade in stolen oil.

Threat to end truce

Mend said camps belonging to the Niger Delta Patriotic Force and the Niger Delta Vigilante had been targeted in the attacks.

Mend will not play into the hands of the military by retaliating.

Militant statement

Earlier in the month, the militants had declared "war" on Nigeria's oil industry after a fierce military raid on one of their bases.

Mend declared a ceasefire after appeals from local leaders, but it warned it would end the truce if attacked by the army again.

"Mend will not play into the hands of the military by retaliating and putting the peace process in jeopardy at this time," the group said in an e-mailed statement, Reuters news agency reports.
Recent violence has been the worst in two years and on Saturday oil giant Shell was forced to declare a "force majeure" - which frees it from contractual obligations - on crude oil shipments from its Niger Delta facilities.

Nigeria's oil production has been cut by 20% because of unrest in the region over the past few years.

When President Umaru Yar'Adua came to power last year he promised to tackle the problems of the Niger Delta.

Recently, his government announced that a new ministry would be formed to deal with the crisis.

A Niger Delta minister is expected to be appointed this week when the president unveils his new cabinet.

(BBC)

Andrew Berends Update

2008-09-24T13:26:00.002Z

For an update on Andrew Berends, the independent film producer arrested in Nigeria earlier this month, check out http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2008/09/latest-update-from-andrew-berends.html

Suspected Militants Arrested at PH

2008-09-24T13:22:00.002Z

The Joint Task Force (JTF) in Rivers State has arrested 219 suspected militants during an early morning raid on notorious water front settlements used by militants as hide-outs in Port-Harcourt, the state capital.

Brig. Gen. Bello Sarkin Yaki, the JTF commander in Rivers State disclosed this yesterday, during an interactive session with journalists. The arrests are coming on the heels of the unilateral ceasefire declared by militants on Sunday, in the state after a week of gun fights between the military and militants during which the military commander confirmed seven militants were
killed.

He said the suspected militants were arrested at Abonema, Diobu, UTC, Njemanze, Afikpo, Nnaka, Timber Market and Ekuele water fronts in Port-Harcourt, adding that the dawn raid was carried out based on intelligence reports available to the special military task force. Bello said the suspects, who were arrested in what he described as known "bad spots" have been handed over to the police for prosecution.

Our correspondent reports that the pre-emptive move by the military task force is to thwart attempts by militants, alleged to be re-grouping in various parts of Port-Harcourt, preparatory to unleashing a reign of violence and terror on innocent citizens, having been dislodged from the creeks by the military.

While reinstating the preparedness of the JTF to continue its clamp down on known bases and other spots used by militants to perpetuate their activities, he assured that the military task force is committed to restoring law and order to Rivers State.

The JTF commander said 99.9 per cent of the camps operated by militants in the state have been identified by the special military unit, saying, "We know where they are and they are at our finger tips".

On the truce declared by the militants, Brig. Gen. Bello said while the military top brass in the country welcome the development, the ceasefire, he however explained, would not prevent the JTF from discharging its responsibility of maintaining security in all parts of the state, whether on land or water.

He, therefore, advised the militants to go beyond the ceasefire and lay down their arms and explore peaceful alternatives to channel their demands to the Federal Government. Bello dismissed insinuations that the military killed civilians and attacked civilian habitations during the clashes with militants in the state, adding that the JTF has rules of engagement and a code of conduct that guides its operations.

(AllAfrica)

Armed Conflict Affects Medical Care

2008-09-23T13:41:00.001Z

Medical care has taken a continued dip in the Niger Delta in over two years of armed conflicts orchestrated by militancy, kidnappings and oil sabotage, said National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

The NARD, rising from its annual scientific conference and general meeting in Port Harcourt, announced there was a significant drop in medical care in the region "because of the increased armed conflicts within the region."

NARD national president, Owhondah Golden, said the relevant health care indices such as infant and maternal mortality rates had experienced a continued upward movement in the region, reaching an alarming rate, saying oil exploration in the region, spanning five decades, had shored up several diseases among the region’s people. Okongwu Chinedu, secretary general of the group, said noted that "the disease burden in the region has been on the increase due to pollution of its environment, ongoing oil exploration and inadequate health care delivery system in the area."

The doctors are appealing fervently to the Federal Government and governments of the region, to act fast in checking the conflicts, that have ultimately caused medical personnel to generally shun administering drugs and health care to those who need attention in the area. The doctors have therefore pledged that they "would pursue rural outreach health programme to assist in realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in collaboration with the local governments of the country.

A recent survey by United Nations Human Development index said over 70 percent of the population of the Niger Delta live below the poverty line, less than $1 a day.
The region, which is the third largest wetland in the world, has a steadily growing population, now put at over 40 million people as of 2006, accounting for more than 23 percent of Nigeria’s population of over 140 million.

(Business Day)

Army Vows to Continue Fight in Delta

2008-09-23T13:37:00.001Z

Nigeria's army said on Monday it would continue to fight criminal gangs in the oil-producing Niger Delta, underlining the fragility of a ceasefire declared by the region's main militant group.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) declared a temporary ceasefire on Sunday after a week of attacks on oil platforms, pipelines, flow stations and gas plants in the heartland of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry.

The six days of violence cut Nigeria's oil output by at least 150,000 barrels per day and forced Royal Dutch Shell to warn it may not be able to meet contractual obligations on shipments of crude from the country.

The army welcomed the ceasefire announcement but said that its strategy of fighting a network of criminal gangs involved in crude oil theft and kidnappings for ransom in the Niger Delta remained unchanged.

"We are not at war, so the issue of a ceasefire does not arise," said Brigadier-General Mohammed Yusuf, spokesman for Nigeria's defence headquarters.

"If the restive youths are actually ready to lay down their arms, then we will change our tactics. If there is no crime, then we will change our tactics. All we want is peace for the development of the area," he said.

Security experts say a loose coalition of various armed groups operate under the MEND franchise in the anarchic delta, where foreign oil firms including Shell, Chevron, Total and Agip have interests.

MEND launched what it described as an "oil war" in the delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks in southern Nigeria, just over a week ago in response to what it said were unprovoked air and sea attacks by the security forces on one of its bases.

It warned in Sunday's ceasefire declaration, announced after a plea by elders, that it would resume its campaign of sabotage against the oil industry if it came under attack again.
Ateke Tom, one militia leader whose group claimed attacks on at least two oil flow stations during last week's strikes, warned that the ceasefire could be lifted at any time.

"This will depend on the military and the government," he told Reuters by telephone from the creeks.

Successive Nigerian leaders have pledged to pacify the Niger Delta, where resentment against the oil industry runs high among impoverished villagers but where criminal gangs also grow rich from a trade in stolen crude and kidnappings for ransom.

President Umaru Yar'Adua this month created a Ministry for the Niger Delta meant to address the instability by developing the region and "empowering" its frustrated youths.

Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the delta, set up a new panel to look at how to bring about lasting peace, but it is charged with reviewing all previous reports on the problem since 1958 and has been dismissed by the militants as the latest in a string of endless committees and proposals.

(Reuters)

Hostages Reportedly Released

2008-09-23T13:33:00.002Z

Two South Africans held hostage by Nigeria's main militant group for ten days have been freed, SA officials confirmed.

Captives, Dan Laarman and Robert Berrie with three other international oil workers, including two Britons and one Ukrainian were taken hostage on 9 September, when their vessel was captured by unknown gunmen.

Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it handed over the two to government secret service agents and expected them to be presented to South African government officials in Port Harcourt."Duo was handed over to government secret service officials at 11 pm on Thursday night, who will in turn hand them over to representatives of South African high commission," said Jomo Gbomo a spokesperson MEND.

Mr Laarman was in Nigeria on a month-long contract with Hydrodive Nigeria to work on Chevron oil rigs.Release of two south Africans was confirmed by South African high commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Stix Sifingo, said Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, expressed appreciation on behalf of her government to Nigerian authorities for helping to bring about a resolution to the matter.Militant groups attack oil installations and kidnap expatriate workers, saying they are fighting for a greater share of profits from oil exploitation for the poor.Mr Laarman's parents, Will and Ingrid, said on Friday when they received the news from their Cosmos home on Hartbeespoort Dam near Pretoria they were overjoyed.

"When I heard Dan's voice over the phone on Friday afternoon, it felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It was a very emotional experience for me," Ingrid said.

Meanwhile MEND said it rescued 27 hostages from group that had been kidnapped but would hold on to 25 remaining hostages, until Henry Okah who is the leader and was released from prison.

However two South Africans were released because Mr Okah's wife, who lives in South Africa, said South African government treated her and her children well.Last month two German hostages employed by a local unit of Manheim based construction company Bilfinger Berger were also set free by militants group after they were abducted by kidnappers.

(Afrol News)

Bloody Week in the Niger Delta

2008-09-22T13:21:00.002Z

Even by the usual violent standards of Nigeria's conflict-ridden, oil-rich southern Niger Delta region, it has been a bloody seven days, with dozens of civilian casualties and many more wounded or displaced, according to local observers, in clashes in Rivers state between the military and rebel fighters.

The clashes - reportedly the heaviest in two years in the region - were sparked on 13 September when government security forces allegedly razed the villages of Soku, Kula, and Tombia, in Rivers state while looking for Farah Dagogo, a member of rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

Civilians caught in crossfire

"I got distress calls from the affected areas saying two of the villages had been razed to the ground, and there was an urgent need for medical teams to go there, but it was not possible for us to go." said Chika Onah with the Nigerian Red Cross (NRC) in Port Harcourt.

Ongoing insecurity has cut off access to parts of Rivers state, making it hard for disaster workers to count how many of the estimated 20,000 inhabitants in the three towns have fled, according to NRC.

Nevertheless, Onah told IRIN civilian casualties are high. "There is no way the civilian population will not suffer in this kind of attack."

Local human rights workers told IRIN they were caught in helicopter and boat gunfire. Sofiri Joad Peterside, a human rights campaigner in the Delta told IRIN, "These were aerial strikes without clear targets. What we are calling for right now is an independent assessor to determine the extent of civilian vulnerability to all these strikes."

He said the violence hit civilians directly. "The centre of the violence was full of civilians. We live in riverine areas and in every riverine area, you have a forest where people go to pick seafood, and you have a community."

But Nigerian army spokesman, Emeka Onwuamaegbu, said the military did not carry out a full-scale offensive. "We are applying minimum force in tackling the situation...we cannot go all out to kill our own people. Can we?"

Surge in violence

On 14 September, MEND declared war against foreign-owned oil companies working in the Delta, pledging to destroy oil pipelines and flow stations, and warning companies to evacuate their staff and stop pumping. MEND claims five attacks since its oil war threat.

Rebels have escalated attacks in recent months against oil production spots, according to locals who do not want to reveal their identities because of the region's volatility.

A government effort to reign in oil smuggling by shutting down 200 illegal oil refineries in the past two months has sparked more fighting, according to the governmental Joint Military Task Force.

The Niger Delta, 70,000 kilometres of mostly wetlands, is home to some 20 million people who sit atop more than 30 billion barrels of top grade crude oil, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The region's oil production has slumped after periodic attacks by local rebels who say criminal gangs and government military forces are siphoning and smuggling oil wealth, leaving behind polluted, malaria-infested, lawless marshlands that have seen little return from oil revenues.

'If you drink our water, you'll get sick'

Oil revenue from the Delta will amount to US$66 billion in 2008, according to an August 2008 report by the UK-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, but Delta residents say they see little of this money invested in the delta communities surrounding the oil fields.

Rebel leader Tom Polo in Wari, in western Delta, told IRIN, "We are suffering in the Niger Delta. If you drink our water, you'll get sick. They [the government] are not doing anything for us. Every day they say oil prices have gone up, but we don't see any tangible benefits from it."

He said the government has not given back to local communities. "If you go to other countries that are rich in oil, they build first-class universities in oil-producing communities, but here there is nothing like that."

Government spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi pledges more development, but says security must come first. "The government takes the Niger Delta very seriously. It is one of the seven key priorities of this administration...we are doing everything possible to improve living conditions in the Delta, but the security forces will continue to check the excesses of all those seeking to exploit the situation to make money through criminal tendencies."

Red Cross worker Onah says spiralling criminality is hampering efforts to protect civilians. "The issue in the Niger Delta has now gone beyond the struggle for a greater share of the region's resources. If they [criminal gangs masquerading as militants] can kidnap a one-year old baby or a sixty-year old grandmother, organisations like ours that want to help have to be very, very careful."

Government tries to quell violence

On 10 September 2008, the Nigerian cabinet appointed a new ministry for the region.
Presidential spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, announced the ministry's plans to "tackle the challenges of infrastructural development, environmental protection and youth empowerment in the region. We believe this is an important step in building confidence about this government's plans for the Niger Delta."

In 2000, the government set up a similar Niger Delta Development Commission to relieve poverty in the region, hoping this would end unrest. But the commission lacked funding and astute management, according to most analysts.

Tony Uranta, executive secretary of the non-governmental United Niger Delta Energy Development and Security Strategy, says the government needs to honour its promises if fighting is going to end- definitively.

Coming out of a meeting with President Umaru Yar'Adua on 19 September, he told IRIN, "It is a mistake to approach the Delta problem as a security problem rather than a development or justice problem. There is a bit of sincerity [from the government] beginning to show but it is still early. Once we see this sincerity in action...there will be changes for the better in the region."

As the two sides wrangle over oil wealth distribution, Samuel Atori, a Delta native and founder of the Abuja-based Izon Prayer Network, concluded, "When two elephants wrestle, the grass suffers."

(VOA)

MEND Declares Cease Fire

2008-09-21T17:16:00.003Z

Nigeria's main militant group has declared a cease-fire in the southern oil region after a week of stepped-up attacks on the military and oil infrastructure.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it will cease hostilities immediately after appeals from elders and politicians in the region where fighting has flared over the past week.

The group said Sunday in a statement it would launch another spate of reprisal attacks in the event of another military raid on one of the group's base camps. A military operation on Sept. 14 prompted the latest surge in violence.

(AP)

Nigeria's main militant group began a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday after a week of clashes with the military and attacks on oil installations which have cut output in Africa's top producer.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) launched strikes against pipelines, flow stations and other oil and gas facilities last Sunday in response to what it said were ground and air strikes by the military against one of its bases.

"We decided to 'stop outside Baghdad' even at a time of victory over the military and utter helplessness of the oil companies," the group said in an e-mailed statement.

"Effective 0100 hours (0000 GMT) September 21, exactly one week after we launched our reprisal, MEND will begin a unilateral ceasefire till further notice."

Nigerian government officials have said production has fallen by 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the past week, and estimate the country's current output at 1.95 million bpd.

MEND said it had taken the decision after a plea by elders but warned it would restart its campaign if it came under attack from the security forces. It also warned that other groups aligned with it may not respect the ceasefire.

A spokesman for the joint military taskforce (JTF) which polices the Niger Delta cautiously welcomed MEND's announcement but said the group must demonstrate it could keep its word.

"We will continue to carefully and firmly monitor the situation, and exercise some level of restraint until their declaration is seen to have been actualised," Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa told Reuters.

"We are hoping it will not be another tactical deception which we have already prepared to contend," he said.

MEND has announced ceasefires in the past but subsequently relaunched attacks, claiming provocation by the security forces or by the government.

PRODUCTION IMPACT

MEND has carried out at least six attacks in as many days over the past week, its most intense campaign for years against the world's eighth biggest oil exporter.
Royal Dutch Shell, the company hardest hit by the violence, declared a force majeure on shipments of Bonny Light, a type of crude oil, effective from Friday. Force majeure is a contractual clause invoked by suppliers when they cannot meet their obligations due to events beyond their control.

Such intensity of attacks across the eastern Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks, has made assessing the impact difficult as engineers scramble to investigate exactly how much production has been hit in each location.

Shell -- which operates onshore in Nigeria in a joint venture with state run oil firm NNPC -- has given no figures.

Oil workers' union PENGASSAN accused the government of a "lacklustre" approach to reaching a permanent ceasefire in the region and warned that Angola -- which vies with Nigeria for the position of Africa's top producer -- would soon eclipse it.

"Because of the protracted crisis ... Angola has become the alternative haven of oil investors," it said in a statement.

The militants say they want greater development and a better living environment after decades of neglect in the delta. But the unrest is fuelled by a lucrative trade in stolen oil worth millions of dollars a day.

Security experts say the region will never be stable unless an alternative source of income can be found for the gunmen, businessmen, politicians and international shippers all taking their slice of the illegal profits.

(Reuters)

Chief of Defense Staff not Intimidated

2008-09-20T13:41:00.002Z

The Nigerian Armed Forces will not be intimidated by militants operating in the Niger Delta to abdicate its responsibility to defend the country, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshall Paul Dike, has said.

Dike said the military was committed to its constitutional duty of defending the territorial integrity of the country, particularly in the Niger Delta, "and nobody can intimidate the military forces into abdicating that responsibility."

The CDS made the remarks yesterday while on a working visit to the headquarters of the Joint (military) Task Force (JTF) in Warri, Delta State.

He was accompanied on the visit by military top brass which included the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Adbulra-hman Bello Danbazau.

Also yesterday, former Delta State Governor James Ibori sued for peace over the escalation of hostilities in the Niger Delta

He said: "If there is a season for everything under the sun as the Bible says, there being a time for war and a time for peace, then this is the time for cessation of hostilities in the entire Niger Delta."

Militants operating in the Niger Delta have declared an all out war, attacking and destroying oil facilities.

In the offensive launched last weekend, two flow stations in Rivers State believed to be operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Agip were attacked, leaving the militants and men of the JTF to trade accusations over the attacks.

The attacks on the oil facilities, which have allegedly resulted in more oil shut-ins were carried out as Dike visited military installations in Rivers State to assess the security situation.

Dike, who reaffirmed the position of the armed forces, however, admonished all military personnel to adhere to their professional disciplinary norms in order to effectively deliver on their constitutional obligation.

In a subtle but firm response to the reported threat of "full-scale war" on the country's security personnel in the area by militants, the CDS stressed that the military would continue to work for the restoration of peace in the area.

He also charged the officers and men to respect the people especially the civilian population in their area of national service, but avoid any act that could tarnish the image of the armed forces.

He, however, expressed satisfaction with the level of performance by the JTF personnel, saying the on-the-spot assessment of the troops' battle-readiness was the primary reason for his visit.

In his statement last night, Ibori said: "Having heard the anguished cry of the people of the South-South, President Umaru Yar'Adua is determined to end the suffering of the people, and has therefore approved a large scale intervention in the form of the Niger Delta Ministry to reverse the decades old under-development which the area has suffered.

"So, what is called for now is discussion over the activities and funding of the ministry and how best to make it meet the aspirations of the people. Owing to this, I call on all persons of goodwill to join in this peace effort. Hostilities must cease to give the development process the Federal Government has put in place now the chance to succeed.

"War is like malignant cancer; it usually spreads uncontrollably to other areas. Therefore both sides must listen to the voice of wisdom and stop the conflagration - now."

Ibori called on the angry youths of the Niger Delta to have faith in the President and his new initiative.

According to him, "The Niger Delta and Nigeria need their energy re-channelled into really productive ventures. The educated among them should be encouraged to contribute their talents to the needed battle of speeding Nigeria and Africa on the part of swift development and global respect, and themselves towards personal fulfilment and glory. "The uneducated must face intellectual and skill acquisition to enable them compete in the national and global space.

"Fortunately, the focus of the new ministry is two-pronged. While one corrects the abysmal lack of infrastructure in the area, the other faces the task of upgrading the intellectual and talent pool of the area."

According to Ibori, the youths of the area must take advantage of this by ending the hostilities; emerge from their camps and exploit the opportunities that now beckon.

To the militants, he said: "You have made your point. The whole world now knows that your grievances are genuine, and for the first time, the Federal Government is truly addressing them.
In every journey, there is always a place to stop. Your predecessor in arms, the late Major Isaac Adaka Boro realised this, came out from the bush, and reintegrated himself into the society - after leading the first Niger Delta uprising in the 1960s. You too must do like-wise."

In Port Harcourt yesterday, Dike also expressed satisfaction with the performance of JTF, though he said there might be some areas needing improvements.

The CDS thanked Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi for providing a conducive environment for their men to operate in addition to helping out with some logistics.

He called for further cooperation between the state and the armed forces, pointing out that such cooperation had existed right from the time of the civil war.

Responding, Amaechi pleaded with Dike to do everything possible to improve on the present security situation in the state.

He regretted that those he called criminals masquerading as freedom fighters had unleashed terror on the state, but expressed happiness that JTF was working to restore normalcy.

In Bayelsa, the state Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, asked the Federal Government to urgently consider the establishment of a military command in the state.

Sylva made the call when Dike and Dambazau paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Yenagoa.

He said the call became imperative due to the strategic position of Bayelsa as a border state and one of the highest producers of oil, the mainstay of the nation's economy.

(allAfrica.com)

Shell Declares Second Force Majeure

2008-09-20T13:31:00.001Z

Royal Dutch Shell said on Saturday it had declared a second force majeure on crude oil shipments from Nigeria following militant attacks in recent days on its facilities in the Niger Delta.

Shell last week extended a force majeure, which frees it from contractual obligations, on Bonny oil exports from Nigeria following a militant attack in late July.

It said it had declared the second force majeure on Bonny Light shipments on Friday, following further attacks by militants this week.

MEND Continues Assaults on Pipelines

2008-09-20T13:27:00.001Z

Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had destroyed another major oil pipeline in the Niger Delta after a week of the most intense attacks against Africa's biggest oil and gas industry for years.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had attacked a pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell at Buguma Front in Rivers state late on Friday and warned its campaign was not over.

A Shell spokeswoman in Nigeria said the company was investigating the claim, but gave no further details.

The Anglo-Dutch giant, the company hardest hit by the violence, declared a second force majeure on Bonny Light oil shipments on Friday following the week's unrest but gave no details on production.

"MEND will continue to nibble every day at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reach zero," the group said in an e-mailed statement.

MEND fighters have hit pipelines, flow stations and oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta every day since last Sunday, when the group declared an "oil war" in response to what it said were military ground and air strikes.

Shell operates onshore in Nigeria through its SPDC joint venture, of which it holds 30 percent while state oil firm NNPC holds 55 percent. Local subsidiaries of France's Total and Italy's Agip hold the rest.

Shell had already been forced to extend a force majeure on Nigerian Bonny Light exports, which frees it from contractual obligations, following an attack on a major pipeline in July.

Such intensity of attacks across the eastern Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks, makes assessing the impact difficult as engineers scramble to investigate exactly how much production has been hit in each location.

Nigerian government officials have said production has fallen by 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the past week, and estimate the country's current output at 1.95 million bpd.

INTENSE AND SUSTAINED

The attacks this week have largely been limited to Rivers state in the eastern Niger Delta but MEND has warned it may extend its campaign to other areas on- and off-shore.

The violence has been the most intense and sustained since MEND first launched its campaign of sabotage in early 2006, and has included relatively rare direct confrontation with the army.

The world oil market, which has largely focused on the fallout from the credit crisis, has found some support from the situation. Prices traded above $100 on Friday.

MEND said it had launched this week's campaign -- an operation it calls "Hurricane Barbarossa" -- in response to air and naval attacks on one of its bases in Rivers state.

"When (Rivers state governor Rotimi) Amaechi took over, the government just said that they must kill me and my boys," one militant leader, Ateke Tom, told Reuters television this week.

"That is why we are fighting back," he said, surrounded by heavily armed fighters.

The militants want greater development and a better living environment after decades of neglect in the delta, where impoverished villagers live among polluted land and water.

The unrest is fuelled by a lucrative trade in stolen oil worth millions of dollars a day.

Security experts say the region will never be stable unless an alternative source of income can be found for the gunmen, businessmen, politicians and international shippers all taking their slice of the illegal profits.

(Reuters)

MEND Claims More Attacks Against Shell

2008-09-19T13:21:00.003Z

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Thursday launched a new attack on a Shell Development Company pipeline in Rivers state of Nigeria.

In the statement sent via e-mail, the most prominent rebel group in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region said its members had destroyed a major pipeline belonging to Shell Development Company at the Elem- Kalabari Cawthorne Channel axis in the southeastern state of Rivers.

SAD WEEK FOR OIL FIRMS

Besides the new attack, MEND, who has been in intense fighting with Nigerian government forces since Sept. 13, had allegedly destroyed three more oil pipelines in Rivers state.

Meanwhile, several oil flow stations and gas plants have also been blown up in Rivers state since last Saturday.

The rebel group has ordered oil companies to evacuate their workers and foreign vessels to leave ports in Nigeria's oil region to avoid militant attacks, warning that it will extend the "oil war" to neighboring states in the Niger Delta region.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has suffered huge losses. Several employees were killed in the attacks.

"Regrettably, a community station guard was killed during the incident... Four other people are being treated for injuries sustained during the incident at the Shell hospital in Port Harcourt," said a SPDC spokesperson in an e-mail when the first attack on Shell's Alakiri flow station, gas plant and field logistics base was reported on Sept. 15.

"SPDC is aware of the difficulty the security situation places on staff, and continues to monitor developments," the spokesperson said.

It was apparently just the beginning of the ongoing battle, and no one can tell when it will end.
Security sources said Nigerian forces need to further prove their capability until attacks on oil facilities in the region were forestalled.

OIL PRODUCTION CRIPPLED

On Sept. 10, Nigerian President Yar'Adua started to reshuffle his government and created a new Ministry of Niger Delta, vowing to promote development and peace in the country's oil-rich area.

But his efforts have apparently been crippled by the fresh fighting between government forces and the rebel group in the region, so has been oil production, the nation's cash cow.

The rampant attacks on Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region have long been a big headache for the Nigerian government.

Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups emerged in the Niger Delta region, fighting for more local control of the region's natural resources, especially oil, through kidnapping oil workers and attacks on oil facilities.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped and a string of attacks on oil pipelines, wells and terminals have been registered by now, leading to a drop of about 25 percent oil production compared with the country's peak output of 2.6 million barrels per day.

According to reports from the Associated Press, a spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria's state oil company, said Wednesday that militant attacks are now cutting the country's daily oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, putting the country's daily output at around 1.5 million barrels per day, a total loss of 40 percent since the militant campaign began in 2005.

As more than 80 percent of the country's revenue relies on crude oil sales, the oil production shut-in could be a blow big enough to undermine its ambition to become the world's top 20 economies by 2020.

It is difficult to figure out what repercussions the dramatic drop in oil production of the world's 8th largest oil exporter would have in other parts of the world, which is struggling in the face of a new bout of financial turmoil in recent days.

(China News Agency)

Detained Journalists Released

2008-09-19T13:21:00.001Z

Nigerian security agents have released three reporters arrested over an erroneous report claiming the president would step down on health grounds.

The journalists said they were freed late Thursday. They include Channels news employee Bashir Adigun, who also works for The Associated Press in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Channels Television — a major private broadcaster shut down by security officials after the incident — remained off-air.

Channels and other media briefly reported Tuesday that President Umaru Yar'Adua, who suffers a kidney ailment, could shortly leave office. They cited a report by Nigeria's official news agency.

But top government officials said the report was a hoax, claiming no such story had ever been sent to subscribers, and quickly disavowed the information.

(AP)

Oil War Continues

2008-09-18T14:04:00.002Z

Nigerian militants threatened on Wednesday to broaden their "oil war" to offshore oilfields and announced attacks on a crude oil pipeline in the Niger Delta and another Shell-operated facility.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut a fifth of OPEC member Nigeria's oil output, said it would launch attacks outside Rivers state for the first time since clashes began on Saturday.

Oil traders on Wednesday began to take notice of the rise in violence and that helped push prices above $94 a barrel in early trading. The market has fallen sharply this week on the impact of the credit crisis on the global economy.

The heaviest fighting between militants and security forces in more than two years has spread to about 10 villages in Rivers state, home to oil city Port Harcourt. Some private security sources estimate dozens have died.

"After Rivers, the hurricane will be heading to the neighbouring states in the Niger Delta," MEND said in an e-mailed statement.

Experts believe the clashes could continue for weeks as the military tries to capture or kill top militant leaders and regain control of the region's oil resources.

"The fight is over control of oil resources and the right to tap those resources," said Antony Goldman, an analyst at London-based risk consultancy PM Consulting.

Militants have bombed pipelines, platforms, gas plants and oilfields, halting up to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production in the past five days, said an official with state oil firm NNPC.

The world's eighth largest oil exporter is currently pumping around 1.95 million bpd.
MEND, which says it is fighting for more local control of the impoverished region's oil wealth, attacked Shell's Orubiri flow station and a crude oil pipeline at Rumuekpe in Rivers state late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

"It is feared the (Orubiri) facility may have caught fire due to intense, sporadic gunshots and massive dynamite and bomb explosions," said Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state.

Musa said no soldiers were killed in the attack, which involved an assault by eight gunboats.
Militants said their next targets would be major offshore oilfields.

"Soldiers and oil workers are advised to abandon all oil facilities including the offshore rigs of Bonga and Agbami as we want to minimise casualties," MEND said.

MEND launched its most daring strike in June against Shell's $3.6 billion Bonga oilfield, which lies some 120 kilometres from the coast, forcing the company to shut down the 220,000 bpd operation for several days.

MEND's other target, Chevron's Agbami oilfield, is Nigeria's newest oilfield. The facility, which started production in late July, is expected to pump about 100,000 bpd by February.
Chevron and Shell officials said they did not discuss their security plans.

MEND said it was still holding 27 oil workers captive as leverage for the release of suspected militant leader Henry Okah, who is in jail for gun-running and treason.

A Nigeria military spokesman said late on Tuesday two South African hostages had been released, but MEND denied this.

MEND said on Monday it would release the pair after a personal appeal from Okah's wife.

(Reuters)

Committee to Protect Journalists Press Release

2008-09-18T13:54:00.001Z

CPJ condemns the ongoing harassment of translator Samuel George in Port Harcourt. Security services officers have ordered George to report to their offices on September 26, although no charges have been brought against him in the two weeks he has been made to report repeatedly.

George was working as a translator for U.S. filmmaker Andrew Berends when they were arrested by the military on August 31, and then transferred to the Nigerian State Security Services. Berends was detained for 36 hours and then was ordered to report daily to state security for 10 days before he was eventually deported on September 9 with no official charges brought against him. The security services kept George in custody for five days after the arrests, then ordered him to report to the security offices three times last week, George told CPJ. He has not been questioned, he said, and he has not been given a reason for his detention.

According to Nigerian law, official charges must be brought within 48 hours.

"Samuel George has been targeted by the security services merely for helping a journalist carry out his professional work," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "The ongoing intimidation of George contravenes Nigerian law and must end immediately."

Berends entered Nigeria in April to complete a documentary film about the Niger Delta region's oil conflict called "Delta Boys," sponsored by the New York-based Tribeca Film Institute.

Berends previously directed a film about Iraq called "Blood of My Brother," which was screened widely on the international festival circuit and earned a 2006 International Documentary Award.

George is a graduate of Port Harcourt University of Science and Technology and was working with Berends as a translator.

Another documentary film crew was detained this year by the Nigerian military in the Niger Delta region. The military arrested the film crew of "Sweet Crude" on April 12 and held them for a week on charges that were never substantiated.

Station Closed Down After Hoax

2008-09-18T13:50:00.002Z

Nigerian TV station off air over report on president's health

A leading Nigerian private television station was taken off air after it reported that the president was considering resigning on health grounds, authorities said Wednesday.

The offending broadcast was based on a Tuesday report allegedly sent out by the official state News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) which said President Umaru Yar'Adua could stand down "for medical reasons."

The agency has denied being the source of the article while Yar'Adua's aides have said he has no plans whatsoever to resign.

"The NBC (National Broadcasting Commission) hereby invokes the law and suspends with immediate effect the broadcasting operations of Channels Television in all locations in Nigeria," the broadcasting authority said in a statement.

Security forces personnel had visited the station's offices and five people were taken in for questioning. The channel has been off the airwaves since Tuesday evening.

The closure sparked a storm of criticism as media watchdogs urged the authorities to probe the story's source instead of closing down media houses or arresting journalists.

"No medium of communication should be shut down on account of alleged infraction. Any professional misconduct should be properly investigated," said the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

(AFP)

Scot Kidnapped

2008-09-18T13:48:00.001Z

THE Foreign Office confirmed yesterday that a businessman kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria on Monday is a Scot.

Mike Welford, 65, is believed to come from the Aberdeen area, but he has lived and worked in Nigeria for several years and is married to a Nigerian.

(Scotsman)

More Oil Lost

2008-09-18T13:43:00.003Z

Nigeria lost 280,000 barrels daily of its crude output to attacks launched by armed militants in the Niger Delta oil region in the past five days, bringing currently shut output to about one million barrels a day, the state-run oil company said.

``Current shut-in production stands at about one million barrels a day, but it's not necessarily due to militant attacks,'' Levi Ajuonuma, spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said by phone from the country's capital, Abuja, today. ``Only 28 percent (280,000 barrels) is because of militant action.''

The state oil company, also known as NNPC, holds the majority stake in five joint ventures with oil majors that produce more than 90 percent of Nigeria's crude oil. Operators of the joint ventures include Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total and Eni Spa.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main militant group in the oil region, said it declared an ``oil war'' in the southern delta that accounts for nearly all of the country's oil after the military launched an offensive on Sept. 13 on its positions.

In the last five days the militant group, also known as MEND, has attacked pipelines and oil pumping stations run by the Nigerian units of Shell, Chevron and Eni.

In addition to output shut-ins caused by these attacks, Nigeria had accumulated shut-ins due to maintenance projects, leaking pipelines and previous violent disruptions, Ajuonuma said. Exxon Mobil, which has not experienced the recent attacks, has shut some of its production to carry out maintenance on its pipelines, he said.

`Closed for Maintenance'

``Some of the oil facilities attacked in recent days were already closed for maintenance,'' Ajuonuma said.

MEND says it's fighting on behalf of the inhabitants of the Niger Delta who have yet to share in the oil wealth of the region.

Nigeria has Africa's biggest hydrocarbon reserves, with more than 30 billion barrels of crude and 187 trillion cubic feet of gas and was the continent's biggest crude exporter in July and August, according to Bloomberg data. The West African country is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

(Bloomberg)

Delta Violence Timeline

2008-09-17T14:07:00.001Z

Nigerian militants have attacked oil facilities in the Niger Delta in the heaviest fighting in two years.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is responsible for attacks that have cut a fifth of the OPEC member's output since it emerged late in 2005. Below is a chronology of conflict in the Niger Delta since then.

Dec 2005 - Dynamite attack on major pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell kills eight people. MEND claims responsibility.

Jan 2006 - Militants carry out a series of raids on oil installations, killing six people in a raid on a Shell platform and prompting the firm to evacuate hundreds of workers.

Feb 2006 - Nigerian forces attack targets in the Niger Delta by helicopter gunship and militants fire back with rockets as the conflict escalates.

Oct 2006 - Militants in speed boats attack soldiers escorting a convoy supplying oilfields, killing five. Days later, militants kill 17 soldiers in two separate gun battles.

June 2007 - After new President Umaru Yar'Adua takes office, a court frees former militia leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari on bail. He had been in jail since 2005.

Sept 2007 - Suspected militant leader Henry Okah arrested in Angola, prompting MEND to pull out of talks. He was extradited to Nigeria to face treason charges in Feb. 2008.

Feb 2008 - A group of influential rebels and activists say they want to resume peace talks with the government but MEND stays out.

April 2008 - Angola temporarily surpasses Nigeria as Africa's top oil producer because of the Niger Delta outages.

June 2008 - MEND attacks Shell's Bonga oilfield, 120 km (75 miles) offshore, the furthest it has struck in Nigeria's deep waters.

July 2008 - Top U.N. official Ibrahim Gambari resigns as head of committee organising peace talks after Niger Delta leaders criticise his role under past dictator.

Sept. 10, 2008 - Yar'Adua approves creation of a new ministry for the Niger Delta, but militants are dismissive of the idea.

Sept 14, 2008 - MEND declare an "oil war" in the Niger Delta after two days of gunbattles with security forces.

(Reuters)

Chevron Idama Platform Hit

2008-09-17T14:02:00.001Z

US oil giant Chevron yesterday confirmed a shooting around its Idama platform in the Niger Delta region.

A statement on the company's website quoted it as saying, "Chevron Nigeria Limited can confirm reports of shooting in the area of its Idama facilities, Rivers State, at about 1.00 a.m. (0000 GMT) (yesterday). The attack had been reported to the appropriate government authorities and investigation is ongoing".

There were conflicting versions of what actually happened at Idama. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said five of its scouts on a recce around the Idama flowstation, were involved in a minor skirmish with nervous soldiers guarding the station".

The statement also quoted a Nigerian military officer as saying yesterday that his men had repelled an attempt to blow up a Chevron facility overnight.

The company said it was monitoring the situation closely."We can confirm that no CNL (Chevron Nigeria Limited) employee was hurt as a result of the incident. There are no expatriates on the Idama platform and none was involved in the incident," the company said.

"At this time, we do not have information to suggest that the attack was directed specifically at Chevron," it continued.

In terms of production, Chevron said the Idama facility had been shut-in prior to the incident as a result of on-going pipeline repair work. "The shooting incident has not had any additional impact on current levels of CNL production", the statement noted.

Since Saturday, when MEND first evoked a possible oil war, the group has claimed two attacks on Royal Dutch Shell facilities which resulted in the company evacuating 100 of its workers from the area.

(allAfrica.com)

More Oil Facilities Reportedly Hit

2008-09-17T13:54:00.001Z

Armed Nigerian militants who have declared an "oil war" in the restive south of the country claimed Wednesday to have blown up a major pipeline in their latest attack on oil installations in the region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the most prominent of the groups operating in the creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta, said it blew up a pipeline it believes is operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's Agip.

"A very major trunk crude oil pipeline we believe may belong to both Agip and Shell has been blown up today... at about 9:30 am (0830 GMT)... at Rumuekpe, in Rivers state," said MEND in a statement emailed to the media.

The latest attack, a rare daylight one, was not immediately confirmed by the military deployed in the region.

Hours earlier MEND reported having acted with a new ally to have which destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell oil flow station in the African nation's main producing region.

As with other attacks since they declared an "oil war" on Sunday, the rebels moved in with speed boats, dynamite and hand grenades in their attack on the Orubiri flow station, the army said.

The attack on Orubiri was the third on a Shell target in 48 hours. US Chevron has also seen attacks close to its installations this week.

MEND said that it attacked the Orubiri facility along with another militant group, the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF).

"About 2200 (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, fighters from MEND and the NDVF ... attacked and destroyed the Orubiri flow station," MEND said.

Shell made no immediate comment.

MEND said it killed all the soldiers on guard at the Orubiri facility and took their weapons. The army denied the claim, saying none of the 10 naval personnel or guards on duty died or sustained injuries.

MEND renewed a warning to soldiers and oil workers to abandon all oil installations, including deep offshore.

"Soldiers and oil workers are advised to abandon all oil facilities including the offshore rigs of Bonga and Agbami as we want to minimize casualties before Hurricane Barbarossa arrives," the group said.

Hurricane Barbarossa is the code name MEND has given to its new offensive against foreign majors.

MEND attacked Shell's flagship Bonga field in June, while Agbami is another deep offshore field operated by Chevron which only recently came online.

So far only Rivers state is affected, but MEND warned it would spread its attacks to neighbouring states.

As well as Orubiri and the latest pipeline, they have affected a Shell flow station at Alakiri and another pipeline, as well as Chevron facilities at Robertkiri and Idama.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rabe Abubakar, spokesman of the special military unit policing the two other neighbouring oil states of Bayelsa and Delta, has warned that any attack on oil facilities there "will be met with grave consequences".

He said the unit "will not fold its hands and watch the senseless destruction of national economic assets ...(by) unpatriotic elements".

MEND says it is fighting for local people to get a greater share of the huge oil revenues. It declared war on the oil industry at the weekend in response to what it said was an unprovoked attack by the army on one of its positions.

Since MEND took up arms in early 2006, Nigeria's oil output has been cut by at least one quarter as a consequence of kidnappings and sabotage in the Delta.

Two South African hostages seized last week by pirates with 25 other people on a vessel off southern Nigeria were freed Tuesday night, the military said. Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Musa Sagir told AFP no ransom was paid.

MEND Steps up War

2008-09-17T13:42:00.002Z

Militants have attacked another oil facility in Nigeria's Delta region, after "declaring war" at the weekend.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it had destroyed Shell's Orubiri flow-station.

"Militants in eight speed boats attacked Orubiri with bombs, dynamite and hand grenades," said military spokesman Lt Col Sagir Musa.

This is the fourth attack this week. Nigeria's oil production has been cut by 20% due to the unrest.

Col Musa told Reuters news agency that no soldiers had been killed in the attack.

Militants also claimed to have blown up a major oil pipeline at Rumuekpe in Rivers State, but the military could not confirm the attack.

Hostages not free

The BBC's Andrew Walker in Nigeria says the recent fighting has been the heaviest in two years between militants and security forces.

Mend says it has killed at least 29 people, mostly soldiers, although this has been denied by the military.

Two other Shell facilities have been attacked, while a raid on one owned by Chevron was fought off on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the military said two South African hostages captured on the weekend had been released, but this has been denied by Mend.

The South Africans were among 27, including two Britons, seized from an oil services ship on Saturday.

The other workers were Nigerians, Mend said.

"For the avoidance of doubt Mend wishes to state we still have custody of the two South African Hostages," an e-mail to journalists said.

The group also said the hostages would be used as a "human shield" during their handover, which Mend said would happen soon.

On Monday a British oil worker was seized in the Delta's main city, Port Harcourt.

Mend said it was "declaring war" in response to attacks by the military, which it said had left seven of its fighters dead on Saturday.

Some 200 foreign oil workers have been taken hostage in recent years.

Almost all have been freed, normally in return for a ransom, although this is always officially denied.

The militants claim to be fighting for the rights of inhabitants of the oil-producing Niger Delta, who mostly live in poverty.

But many say they are criminal gangs out to extort money from oil companies.

(BBC)

MEND Agrees to Release S. African Hostages

2008-09-16T13:42:00.001Z

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the most prominent rebel group in Nigeria's oil-rich south, agreed on Monday to released two South African hostages at the "earliest convenience".

According to a statement received here late Monday, MEND said that Mrs. Azuka Okah, wife of detained activist and MEND's former commander, Henry Okah, has sent a passionate appeal for MEND's assistance towards the release of the two South African hostages.

The statement said they were impressed by the South African government's respect for the rule of law as Azuka Okah has received respect and hospitality when she and her children are in South Africa.

"MEND will be reciprocating the gesture by releasing the two hostages to the care of the South African government representative at the earliest convenience after working out the modalities including safety concerns since the creek is now a war zone," said the statement.

According to the statement, two South Africans were kidnapped by pirates in Rivers state and was rescued by MEND.

The two South Africans, along with two Britons and a Ukrainian, were abducted on Sept. 10 when boarded on an oil supply vessel operating in waters within Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta region.

MEND, who is in intensive fight with Nigerian government forces, said Saturday that 27 hostages, including the five foreign oil workers, have been trapped in fighting zone in Eleme-Tombia, a riverside community in the Degema council area of Rivers State.

The battle, starting on early Saturday, is still going on, leaving about 30 dead and several oil facilities blown up.

Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups emerged in Niger Delta region, fighting for more local control of natural resources, especially oil, through way of kidnapping oil workers and attacks on oil facilities.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped and a string of attacks on oil pipelines, wells and terminals have been registered by now, which have led to about 25 percent oil production drop compared with the country's peak oil output of 2.6 million barrels per day.

(China News Agency)

Brit Taken Hostage

2008-09-16T13:38:00.001Z

A group of five gunmen have kidnapped a British national in southern Nigeria, reports say.

The hostage, a former employee of the petrochemicals firm Indo Rama, was seized late on Monday in Port Harcourt, sources said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta, the heart of the country's oil sector, since early 2006.

Almost all have been released unharmed.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office told Sky News officials were investigating the report, but could not give further details.

It came as militants launched assaults on two oil installations in the delta in the heaviest fighting there in two years.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut a fifth of the OPEC member's output since early 2006, attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline and Chevron-operated oilfield.

A spokesman for the group said: "A major crude oil pipeline... belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company was destroyed with high explosives."

A Shell spokesman confirmed the attack to the AFP news agency.

"We can confirm that a section of the Greater Port Harcourt Swamp Line at Bakana, Rivers State, was attacked last night (September 15)," Precious Okolobo said.

Some security sources in the oil industry estimate more than 100 people may have been killed by the clashes, which have spread to at least seven villages in the state of Rivers.

The military says militants have incurred "heavy losses", but declined to elaborate.
MEND says at least 29 people, most of them soldiers, have died.

Militants have bombed pipelines, platforms, gas plants and oilfields, shutting up to 115,000 barrels per day of oil production in the last four days, government officials said.

(Sky News)

MEND Say Shell Pipeline 'Destroyed'

2008-09-16T13:35:00.001Z

A Nigerian rebel group says it has blown up and destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline in the latest attack in its "oil war" on western firms.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) also said it would soon release two South African hostages it rescued from pirates.

Neither Nigerian authorities nor Shell immediately confirmed the pipeline raid, but MEND has already attacked a Shell flow station since declaring its war on Sunday. It attacked a Chevron facility hours before the declaration.

MEND is the most prominent armed group in the Delta region which says it is fighting for local people to get a greater share of the huge oil revenues. Its campaign over the past five years has already cut Nigeria's oil production by a quarter.

"A major crude oil pipeline at Bakana Front in Degema Local Government Area ... was destroyed with high explosives by MEND detonation engineers backed by heavily-armed fighters," MEND said in an email statement to the media.

Bakana is in Rivers State, the heart of the oil region. The two previous attacks, one on Shell's Alakiri flowstation and the other on a Chevron facility at Robertkiri, are in the same state.

MEND declared an all-out war on the oil industry at the weekend in response to what it said was an unprovoked attack by the Nigerian military on one of its positions on Saturday.

The group said the two South Africans would be freed "at the earliest convenience." The South Africans were among 27 people, also including 22 Nigerians and three people who are British or Ukrainian - it rescued from pirates on Friday.

MEND said it was persuaded to release the two by an appeal from Azuka Okah, wife of Henry Okah, one of the group's leaders detained in secret in the centre of Nigeria.

(AFP)

Oil Output Down

2008-09-16T13:31:00.001Z

Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil exporter, is pumping around 2.1 million barrels per day, down from last week after a fresh wave of militant attacks, a senior oil official said on Tuesday.

'Production had been at around 2.2 million barrels per day. We are now at 2.1 (million),' a senior official with the state-oil firm NNPC told Reuters.

Government officials on Monday said up to 115,000 bpd of oil production may have been halted in the last four days.

(Forbes)

MEND Claims Clashes Continue

2008-09-14T17:25:00.002Z

The main militant group in Nigeria's southern oil region declared a state of war Sunday after two days of clashes with the armed forces, raising the specter of a stepped-up conflict in Africa's oil giant.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has mostly focused on hobbling Nigeria's oil industry since it emerged nearly three years ago, bombing pipelines in hopes of forcing the federal government to send more revenues to the impoverished oil-producing south.

But a military task force involving marine, land and air forces has stepped up its anti-militant activities in recent weeks, and the militant group said that two days of relatively rare ground battles with the military meant the region was in a state of war.

"Following a previous warning that any attack on our positions will be tantamount to a declaration of an oil war, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has declared an oil war," said a statement from the group, known by its acronym MEND.

It was unclear if the declaration would have any real effect on the ground in the Niger Delta. Neither side has sought a full-blown civil war, although Nigerian media have reported that some elements in the military were pushing for more-robust attacks on the militants.

MEND is a loose alliance of militant and criminal gangs who steal Nigerian oil for sale overseas.

Most fighting is focused on hitting the oil industry, but a full-scale conflict with the military could leave the country's oil-pumping infrastructure in tatters, while jeopardizing the militants' own lucrative oil trade.

International oil companies would struggle to maintain the thousands of miles (kilometers) of pipelines connecting wells to export terminals. A shutdown of all oil production from Nigeria, one of the world's top producers and an OPEC member, would cause further spikes in oil prices.

The militants, who analysts say are motivated by money as well as politics, say they want more federally held oil funds for their states, which remain impoverished despite five decades of production in Africa's oil giant. Their attacks have cut about one-fifth of Nigeria's normal oil output, helping send crude prices to all-time highs in international markets.

On Sunday, militants said they attacked soldiers protecting sites run by Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell — payback for a rare ground battle Saturday when the armed forces attacked a militant base camp. The militants said seven of their fighters died in the Saturday attack.

Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the military task force charged with calming the Niger Delta, said unknown fighters battled soldiers Sunday near two sites operated by Chevron and Shell in Rivers State. The militants said Sunday's fighting had killed 22 troops, but Musa denied that claim.

Representatives for Shell and Chevron said the companies were investigating reports of an incident and had no immediate comment.

The militants also said they blew up other pieces of oil infrastructure, but those claims couldn't be immediately verified. The group warned international oil companies to stay away from the region.

"All international oil and gas loading vessels entering the region are warned to drop anchor in the high sea or divert elsewhere until further notice. Failure to comply is taking a foolhardy risk of attack and destruction of the vessel," the group said.

The militants said they had attacked a military outpost in recent weeks, killing 29 military personnel in response to alleged killings of civilians. The government denied that any attacks took place. The accounts could not be independently verified.

Large-scale battles between the militants and military are rare. While the military often skirmishes with gunmen during chance boat encounters on the region's waterways, it has avoided major attacks on militant camps and other permanent positions.

The militants generally avoid the armed forces, sticking to the back creeks of the delta as they roam the region. The weekend's battles are unusual examples of clashes between massed forces.

(International Herald Tribune)

Chevron Reports Attack

2008-09-14T17:21:00.000Z

Chevron Corp. (CVX) Sunday said it has received reports of shooting near its Nigerian facilities, adding two contractors might have died but that it was unclear if the company was the target of the attack.

In an e-mail to Dow Jones Newswires, a Chevron spokesman said that, at about 0200 AM Sunday, it "received reports of shooting in the area of its Robertkiri facilities, Rivers State." "The attack has been reported to the appropriate government authorities and investigation is ongoing," the spokesman added. Chevron didn't specify where the reports emanated from. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the region's largest militant group, said earlier Sunday it had attacked a Chevron oil facility. Agence France Presse quoted a Nigerian army spokesman as saying its men had repelled the attack.

In a subsequent e-mail, the Chevron spokesman said: "We don't have information to suggest that the attack was directed specifically at Chevron." He added no Chevron Nigeria "employee was hurt as a result of this incident, but initial reports suggest that 2 employees of a local marine vessel supply company, Dahnariq Nigeria Ltd - which supplies small vessels to (Chevron Nigeria) operations, might have died.

Attacks on the oil industry by Nigerian militants seeking a better distribution of oil revenue have taken place for years. But MEND Saturday called for an escalation of its operations, claiming the Nigerian army had started a wide-scale offensive against the group.

(Dow Jones)

MEND Warns of Oil War

2008-09-14T17:17:00.001Z

Militants in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region say they have "declared war" on the government after battling security forces guarding facilities.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it was responding to attacks by the military.

The military said it had repelled several Mend attacks. Both sides say their opponents suffered heavy losses.

Mend's violent campaign for a bigger part of the area's oil wealth has cut Nigeria's oil output by more than 20%.

Mend militants are the largest of several armed groups operating in the impoverished delta region. They frequently kidnap foreign oil workers and sabotage oil installations and pipelines.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'adua is under pressure to crack down on the militants and make the delta safer for international oil firms.

Lawless region

In an email released by Mend, the group said it had launched an "oil war" on the government in response to what it described as unprovoked aerial attacks on its bases in the Niger Delta.

The group said its heavily-armed fighters had fanned out in hundreds of boats to attack oil installations in Rivers state.

"The operation will continue until the government of Nigeria appreciates that the solution to peace in the Niger Delta is justice, respect and dialogue," the group said.

An oil platform at Kula, operated by oil giant Chevron, was among the facilities targeted, Mend said, adding that 22 Nigerian troops had been killed in the attack.

A Nigerian military spokesman said they had repelled an attack on an oil platform operated by the US company, Chevron. He said the militants had suffered heavy casualties.

The Niger Delta region is the source of most of the Nigerian government's income, yet it remains blighted by poverty and corruption.

(BBC)

Militants Battle Nigerian Forces

2008-09-13T13:20:00.002Z

Militants battled Nigerian armed forces in the country's southern oil region Saturday and threatened to launch reprisal raids on the oil infrastructure in Africa's biggest crude producer.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told The Associated Press in a statement that the Nigerian army and navy attacked their positions in a surprise raid on Rivers State, pouring in ground troops from landing craft and bombing their fighters from jet planes and helicopters. They said three militants were killed.

Lt. Col. Sagir Musa of the military task force charged with calming the restive oil region confirmed an armed engagement Saturday, saying it was a response to an ambush by militants. Musa, however, said aircraft were only providing reconnaisance and had no details on casualties.

The militants vowed they would retaliate for the raid by striking back against Nigeria's oil industry, Africa's largest, and warned foreign workers to vacate the southern Niger Delta.

"Oil companies are warned to move out their workers within the next 24 hours because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region," the statement said.

The militants are behind nearly three years of rising violence in the southern Niger Delta. They say their deeply impoverished areas haven't benefited from five decades of oil production and they're agitating for more federally held oil funds to be sent to the southern oil states.The government acknowledges the grievances of many in the southern Niger Delta, but denounces the militants as criminals who use their struggle as a cover to make money from stealing crude oil and sell it overseas.

Corrupt government officials, however, also siphon off and sell oil and many state-level politicians are linked to the militants and other armed gangs, who they hire to rig elections.The militants said in recent weeks they had attacked a military outpost, killing 29 military personnel in response to alleged killings of civilians. The government denied that any attacks took place.

The accounts couldn't be independently verified.Still, large-scale battles between the militants and military are rare. While military often skirmishes with gunmen during chance encounters, it has avoided launching fuller-scale attacks on militant camps and other positions.For their part, the militants generally avoid the armed forces in the region, sticking to the back creeks of the delta and focusing their violence on the oil industry.Neither side appears to seek a full-blown civil war.

Analysts see a wider armed struggle as a nightmare scenario for Nigeria's oil infrastructure, which is largely unguarded and vulnerable to sabotage by militants who frequently destroy pipelines and cut production. That sends the price of oil higher in international markets.

MEND Claims Government Attacks Intensified

2008-09-13T13:18:00.000Z

Nigerian government forces have launched full scale attack on militant camps in the country's southeastern Rivers State, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), an active militant group operating in the region, said in a statement received here on Saturday.

"At about 0900 Hrs today, September 13, 2008, the armed forces of Nigeria began a full scale aerial and marine offensive on the MEND positions and neighboring Ijaw communities in Rivers State with helicopter gunships, jet fighters and over 20 gun boats and landing crafts filled with heavily armed soldiers mainly from the northern axis of Nigeria," said the statement.

"All MEND positions in the Niger delta will respond to this unprovoked attack coming at a time the government is canvassing the so-called Niger Delta Ministry to hoodwink the people," it said.
The statement also revealed that civilians near the camps were under attacks from government forces.

Oil companies are warned to move out their workers within the next 24 hours, "because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region."

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua Wednesday reshuffled his cabinet and created a new Ministry of Niger Delta, vowing to promote development and peace in the country's oil-producing area.

Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups emerged in Niger Delta region, fighting for more local control of natural resources, especially oil, through way of kidnapping oil workers and attacks on oil facilities.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped and a string of attacks on oil pipelines, wells and terminals have been registered by now, which have led to about 25 percent oil production drop compared with the country's peak oil output of 2.6 million barrels per day.

Film Maker Freed

2008-09-12T13:59:00.002Z

An award-winning American filmmaker arrested and imprisoned on spying charges was freed by the Nigerian State Security Service Tuesday, after an international campaign pressed authorities for his release. His translator continues to be interrogated.

Andrew Berends, a recipient of the International Documentary Association's Courage Under Fire award for his work in Iraq, had been living in Nigeria since April making a film about daily life in the oil-rich Niger Delta, where the activities of multinational corporations like Chevron and Shell Oil have provoked the ire of human rights groups.

In the last 10 years, military factions acting on behalf of multinational oil companies have killed more than 2,000 people in the Niger Delta, says the San Francisco-based nonprofit group Global Exchange, whose "Freedom from Oil" campaign aims to expose the negative consequences of Americans' oil consumption.

It is unclear if Berends will now be able to complete work on his film.

According to Berends' co-producer Aaron Soffin, Berends and his translator, Sam George, were arrested in the Delta's main city, Port Harcourt, Friday as they filmed "fishing boats coming in and women walking with their products to market."

Soffin said the two were imprisoned and interrogated by Nigerian police, military, and state security officers for 36 hours straight without food, water, or sleep. Their incarceration drew an immediate condemnation from international press freedom groups Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists and from Berends' home-state senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer.

Four days after his arrest, Berends was transferred to the Nigerian capital Abuja and turned over to the custody of the U.S. Embassy, but was forced to report to the Nigerian State Security Service for additional interrogation. On Tuesday night local time, Berends was on a plane out of the country after receiving deportation papers.

At the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, officials defended their government's treatment of Berends and George. "We all believe in freedom of speech," a member of the Ambassador's staff told OneWorld, "but you can't prevent law enforcement from doing their job. If they have any reason to question anybody in the normal course of their duties, that's part of what their job entails. It's just like any other part of the world."

Press freedom groups disagree. "Now that Andrew's case is settled, we expect his translator and the businessman who was arrested at the same time to be freed unconditionally as soon as possible," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "We hope the Nigerian authorities have learned from this episode that it is absurd to arrest reporters in the Delta region and accuse them of spying when they are simply reporting, with permission, on economic and political situations in that country."

Human rights and media freedom groups note Berends and George's arrests are just the latest in a series of detentions and deportations of foreign journalists working in Nigeria. In April, a team of documentary filmmakers were arrested and deported in the same oil-rich region while working on a film called "Sweet Crude." Last October, two independent filmmakers and an American peace activist were arrested and deported while taking pictures of Nigeria's oil infrastructure.

The crackdown also comes as a landmark federal court case over Chevron's behavior in Nigeria lurches toward trial in San Francisco. The case, Bowoto vs. Chevron, was filed eight years ago by Nigerian civilians who were injured or killed in violent crackdowns by Nigerian security forces paid by the California-based oil giant.

After eight years of motions, the case was to go to trial this month, but the Bush administration refused to grant the Nigerian villagers visas to enter the United States.

"We the American public are not allowed to see footage about the way American oil companies operate around the world," said Antonia Juhasz, author of the upcoming book, The Tyranny of Oil. "Over the last eight years there has been an increasing U.S. military presence in West Africa to support these oil companies. The Bush administration and the oil companies don't want the American people to know this."

A crackdown on the media, Juhasz said, is also in the interests of the Nigerian government. "The Nigerian government wants the United States and the oil companies to think it has everything under control, and the more it is shown that it is a war zone and the more it is shown that the people of Nigeria are resisting these oil companies, the more the Nigerian government cracks down."

As of press time, it was unclear whether Berends was able to leave Nigeria with the material he collected over his months of filming. If he was, Americans are likely to learn a lot more about daily life in the oil-rich Niger Delta. If Berends' material was lost, another opportunity to broadcast the local effects of the world's thirst for petroleum will have been lost with it.

(oneworld)

Shell Extends Force Majeure

2008-09-12T13:53:00.001Z

Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's biggest oil producer, extended a suspension of export obligations for its Bonny Light crude after discovering further leaks on a pipeline attacked by militants in July.
Shell Petroleum Development Co., the company's local unit, ``is extending the force majeure it declared on July 29 on the Bonny light offtake program,'' spokesman Rainer Winzenried said in an e-mailed statement today. The extent of the suspension will ``depend on the progress of repair work,'' he said.

Force majeure is a legal clause that allows producers to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond their control.

Nigeria has fallen behind Angola as Africa's biggest oil exporter this year as militant attacks on oil installations and pipelines crimp production. Bonny Light is the light, sweet variety of oil, typically pumped by Nigeria and favored by U.S. refiners for the quantity of gasoline it produces.
Shell originally declared force majeure on Bonny deliveries in July, August and September after militants attacked the Nembe Creek trunk-line in the Kula area of Rivers state, shutting some crude production. Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, claimed responsibility for the attack.

``The company had worked hard to repair the pipeline and bring back production only to discover more leaks from the effects of the attack,'' Winzenried said.

Exports of Bonny Light were originally scheduled to increase 24 percent in October as production resumed. Shipments were scheduled to average 196,774 barrels a day, compared with 158,333 barrels a day in September. Bonny Light production is normally in excess of 300,000 barrels a day.

(Bloomberg)

MEND Opposes New Ministry

2008-09-12T13:46:00.002Z

Nigeria's most prominent militant group on Thursday criticized the creation of a new ministry dedicated to the problems of the oil-rich Niger Delta, saying it could lead to corruption.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua announced changes to ministries on Wednesday that included the creation of a ministry for the Niger Delta and the separation of the energy ministry into petroleum and power.

"The people of the region should receive this latest dish with apprehension," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement.

"It will be yet another avenue for corruption and political favouritism."

Yar'Adua, who took office 16 months ago, has been under pressure to bring stability to the delta. The MEND launched a campaign of violence in early 2006 that has shut a fifth of the OPEC member's oil output.

Nigeria's government set up a panel on Monday to look at how to bring peace to the Niger Delta but militants dismissed it as no more likely to succeed than past efforts.

A peace summit promised by Yar'Adua was shelved in July after a mediator organising the event resigned.

(Reuters)

Note: MEND's fears were exactly the thought I had when the FG announced formation of this new governmental entity. This is just one more layer of government bureacracy to be corrupted and will split bribe money and ill gotten gains even further than it is now. In my opinion, Yar'Adua has simply created another source of income in a country where corruption is the norm. Until Nigerians realize that to kill a snake you must cut off its head, the country will be ruled by increasingly greedy Medusa's and it will be the average citizen who continues to suffer.

Creation of New Ministry Hailed as Progress

2008-09-11T13:47:00.001Z

Residents of Nigeria's restive oil-rich Niger Delta region are reportedly hailing as a step in the right direction the creation Wednesday of a new Niger Delta ministry by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's administration. The residents say the move could help quell the escalating violence in the Niger delta region and boost the country's oil production which has reportedly taken a significant hit after rebels in the area intensified violent attacks on both foreign and local workers employed by oil companies in the area. The creation of the new ministry for the Niger Delta region is a key demand by the various armed groups in the area, claiming it would help reduce the violence and bring about development.

VOA's Chinedu Offor is monitoring the situation. He tells reporter Peter Clottey from Nigeria's capital, Abuja that expectations are high after the creation of the new ministry.

"Today Thursday, prominent politicians and personalities of the Niger Delta are expressing support for President Umaru Yar'Adua's decision to create a ministry for the Niger Delta. What this essentially means is the Niger Delta would no longer be handled as a part of a particular ministry, but would now have a full ministry that would take care of infrastructural development, political development, environmental problems and the issue of hostage taking and reconciliation," Offor said.

He said the creation of the new ministry is a significant step towards resolving the instability in the restive, but oil rich Niger Delta region.

"This is one of the demands made by several people in that area, especially the militant groups that they need a separate ministry to take care of their affairs. And it appears that with this decision, President Umaru Yar'Adua has kicked started the government's effort to once more resolve the Niger Delta problem permanently," he pointed out.

He said the creation of the new ministry could potentially boost oil production in the area once violence there has been reduced.

"Remember, the oil companies are fleeing from that region because of these problems. They say the militant attacks have gotten to an extent that they can no longer operate efficiently, and their experts are feeling from that area. And of course Nigeria's oil production has been reduced by about 20 or 30 percent, depending on whom you are talking to," he said.

Offor said the creation of the new ministry is one of many demands made by rebels in the restive Delta region.

"This is a key demand by the militants, and with the government acceding to this demand, there is every hope that at least the main militant groups would see this as an olive branch from the Nigerian government, and would reduce the incidence of militant attacks and hostage taking.

And after that when the violence is reduced to the barest minimum, the oil companies can come back, then people can get to the table and talk about other issues. But I think with this decision the government would want to first reduce the violence before any other issue can be discussed," Offor noted.

He said the government seems to be bent on ensuring peace in the Niger Delta region.

"I think that is true because apart from the creation of this new ministry of the Niger Delta, the government particularly, the Vice President Jonathan Goodluck on Tuesday inaugurated what he called a technical committee to look at the issue of the Niger Delta. Again remember that there was a time where there was supposed to be a peace conference, but that peace conference did not hold because the Niger Delta people refused to recognize the government's representative, especially the chairman, former Nigerian representative to the United Nations Alhaji Gambari, whom they said was a stranger to what is happening in the Niger Delta," he said.

(VOA)

Diver's Parents Optomistic

2008-09-11T13:41:00.002Z

Parents of a Cape Town man kidnapped in the Niger Delta are confident their son's navy training will guide the group through the ordeal.

Dan Laarman, 36, was one of 13 people - five foreign workers and eight Nigerians - abducted while on an oil industry supply vessel on Tuesday. A private security contractor in the region said the vessel, HD Blue Ocean, was attacked at the mouth of the Sambreiro River in the delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the Nigerian authorities had officially confirmed to South Africa's High Commissioner to Nigeria, Stix Sifingo, that two South Africans had been abducted.

"Sifingo and his consular officials will continue to do everything in their power, working with the Nigerian authorities and employer, to help find a speedy and amicable resolution to the matter," he said.

Laarman's parents, Will and Ingrid, said from their Cosmos home situated on the Hartbeespoort Dam near Pretoria that he was probably the ideal person to be in that situation. "He trained in the SA Navy for more than 10 years," Will Laarman said."With all his experience he would be calm and assess the situation. He will calm the other people down because he knows that if they panic something bad will happen."

The couple said they received a call on Wednesday from Laarman's girlfriend of 10 years, Michelle Smit. Ingrid Laarman said Dan had about nine years' experience as a freelance diver and had worked in the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico and Gabon.

"Dan recently qualified as a nitrox diver, which allowed him to live in a pressurised cabin for about a month and dive deeper than 100m. He is aware of the dangers in this job, but not these kinds of dangers," she said.

Laarman was in Nigeria on a month-long contract with Hydrodive Nigeria to work on Chevron oil rigs. South African-born hostage negotiator, Mark Courtney, said kidnappings in the delta usually did not take less than 10 days to resolve, but the gunmen where not violent and chiefly interested in making money.Courtney is retained by Thomas A Clayton Consultants, the world's leading global risk and crisis management company headquartered in California.

"It's extremely difficult to find out who is holding the prisoners because they hide behind pseudonyms. It takes about a week to 10 days to find out which group you’re dealing with. The standard request is a billion naira (US$80 million), which is too much. No one ever pays that."

He said the gang that carries out the actual "snatch" would consist of about 10 to 30 armed men, but there could be as many as 100 men at the camp where they were held. "Thecamps are in the delta, the place is criss-crossed with rivers and streams."Courtney said it was seldom that situations in the delta went bad and the longest case he dealt with was 50 days.

Insecurity in the Niger Delta surged in early 2006 when militants, who say they are fighting for more local control of the impoverished region's oil wealth, started blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign workers and holding them for ransom.

(Reuters)

Supply Boat Attacked

2008-09-11T13:34:00.003Z

Two Britons, two South Africans and a Ukrainian were on board an oil supply vessel which was hijacked in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta on Tuesday, private security sources said on Wednesday.

One security contractor said unidentified gunmen attacked the vessel, H.D. Blue Ocean, on Tuesday at the entrance of the Sambreiro River in the delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks which is home to Africa's biggest oil industry.

Nigerian military officials have not confirmed the attack.

James McLaughlin, spokesman for the British High Commission in Nigeria, said: "I can confirm that there were two Britons on board the vessel. We have been in touch with the Nigerian authorities to press for their early release."

South Africa's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that two of its nationals were abducted in the delta on Tuesday, but gave no further details and made no reference to an attack on a vessel.

"High Commissioner (Stix) Sifingo and his consular officials will continue to do everything in their power, working with the Nigerian authorities and employer, to help find a speedy and amicable resolution," the ministry statement said.

Another security contractor in Nigeria also said those on board included two Britons, two South Africans and a Ukrainian. Eight Nigerians were also thought to have been on the vessel.

Insecurity in the Niger Delta surged in early 2006 when militants, who say they are fighting for more local control of the impoverished region's oil wealth, started blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign workers.

More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in the delta over the past two years. Almost all have been released unharmed.

Criminal gangs have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order and the instability has become as much about control of a lucrative trade in stolen oil and abductions for ransom as about political struggle. Vessels are regularly seized.

Gunmen attacked a vessel operated by the local unit of Italian energy group Eni close to Sambreiro early on Sunday, killing one crew member and abducting another for ransom, the army said.
That attack came barely three weeks after gunmen hijacked a supply vessel belonging to oil services company West Africa Offshore with eight Nigerian crew members as it returned from the Agbami offshore field operated by U.S. firm Chevron.

(Reuters)

Niger Delta Peace Campaign

2008-09-09T13:41:00.002Z

A 40-person technical committee was commissioned, Monday by the Nigerian government to draw up recommendations to end the crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta. But the main rebel group has rejected the plan. For VOA, Gilbert da Costa has more in this report from Abuja.

Following the collapse of the government's attempts to negotiate a settlement with oil rebels, the new committee is mandated to review previous reports on ways to develop the Niger Delta and to advise government accordingly.Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil exporter, is already suffering huge losses because of violence in the Delta.Authorities have acknowledged that poverty and neglect lie at the root of many of the region's problems.

The Delta's most prominent armed militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says the so-called peace committee is destined to fail. The group has made the release of its leader, Henry Okah, on trial for treason and gun-running, a pre-condition for suspending its campaign of violence.

A community leader with strong ties to the rebels, Chief Edwin Clark, says the federal government has not shown commitment and sincerity in dealing with core issues in the Delta crisis."The federal government is not sincere, is not ready to commit itself to anything. We have told them enough is enough. If you want to settle the problem of the Niger Delta, demonstrate willpower, your sincerity. Show that you are committed and the people will stop the crisis, they will embrace whatever development. They [government] have not shown the willpower, commitment and the sincerity to develop the area. And, there can never be peace without justice," said Clark.

The 15-month administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua has repeatedly promised to address the root cause of the unrest.

Many of the armed groups in the Niger Delta say they are fighting for a greater share of the nation's oil wealth. The inhabitants of the Delta remain desperately poor, despite the wealth pumped out of the region every day.Other groups have targeted foreign companies, seizing workers in exchange for ransom.

Nigeria's daily oil production has been cut by about a quarter because of the violence in the southern region. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries says the West African nation was overtaken as the continent's largest producer by Angola in April.

(VOA)

The North & Niger Delta Oil

2008-09-09T13:36:00.001Z

It has become a fad for Southerners to cast aspersions on Northerners as parasitic and lazy, obviously because the oil wealth that largely sustains this nation comes from the South, specifically the Niger Delta. Hearing these ethnic chauvinists, one could assume wrongly that the presence of crude oil in the region was due to dint of hard work by our illustrious compatriots in the South-South, rather than6 the serendipitous geological happenstance that took place millions of years before humans even existed. It's quite possible that some Niger Deltans think that their venerated ancestors used the supernatural powers of Owuamapu, Ohworhu, Olokun and other riverine spirits of the Niger Delta, to magically impregnate their corner of mother earth with sumptuous hydrocarbon deposits.

The truth of the matter is that, thanks to the visionless misrule by unconscionable kleptocrats that have presided over our affairs since independence, we are all parasites - Niger Deltans included! Hence, some of our South-South compatriots sabotage oil installations to deliberately cause oil spillage in order to collect huge monetary compensations and other pay-outs from oil companies for the self-inflicted environmental degradation, which is much more lucrative than tilling the land. Shell, Mobil, Chevron and other multi-national oil companies operating in the Niger Delta are responsible corporate citizens elsewhere around the world, but it is only in Nigeria that their activities regularly cause oil spillage.

To be fair, this sordid state of affairs is not at all the fault of our Niger Delta brothers and sisters, since government at all levels has repeatedly failed to deliver on development, in spite of the stupendous oil wealth accruing to the nation.

Thankfully, many Niger Deltans are now aware that corruption (not derivation) is the major obstacle to development of the region, as evident from a recent Daily Independent interview with Joseph Amberkederim of the South-South Elements Progressives Union:

"…The amount of money that has accrued to the South-South governors in the past nine years is enough, more than enough to transform the Niger Delta...If monies are being used judiciously and religiously, the monies that have come to the governors of the South-South today, we would not have the problems we are having in the Niger Delta. Do you know what one billion naira can do in a community? What are these people asking for anyway? Roads, water, electricity, school buildings and furniture for these schools…The corruption among the governors in the South-South is enormous, the stealing is enormous, and I have stood as a voice, even if I would be the lonely voice that would tell them, so be it…"

Living in the North with pot-holed roads, numerous beggars, high illiteracy, collapsed industries and massive unemployment amongst other obvious evidence of underdevelopment, one is at loss as to the "development" that has supposedly accrued from diverted Niger Delta wealth. This is the same North that the CBN report as being poverty-stricken, with Jigawa as the poorest state - while Bayelsa is the richest. A few mansions here and there in the North, owned by the thieving Nigerian ruling class, as can be found elsewhere in the federation does not constitute development.

Then there is the lame excuse of difficult terrain that makes road and other developmental projects in the Niger Delta expensive. This arguement holds no water, as even in the North, there are peculiar development challenges. Territorially, Adamawa, Niger or Borno states are each as large as all the South-South states combined. So when the Rivers State government budgets for 1km of road, Adamawa State budgets for 6km, not to mention the additional cost of providing social amenities and infrastructure to widely dispersed population over much larger territory - more transformers, wires and electric poles for rural electrification, more health centres etc - all without the help of oil companies or NDDC.

Consequently, the intelligence of Nigerians should no longer be insulted with the "difficult
terrain" tissue of lies, particularly as Rivers State collects more federal allocation than the entire North East zone - seven times that of Adamawa State.

If Niger Deltans persist in their unreasonable demand for 50% derivation, then we will have to re-open the Pandora box of such vexed issues as boundary demarcation and revenue from offshore drilling. International maritime law bestows the 200mile territorial waters on the Nigerian nation, not on any federating unit. So the offshore oil belongs to all Nigerians, not to any littoral state.

Of course corruption is not unique to the Niger Delta, but it is a national ailment that has under-developed the entire nation, not just the Niger Delta. It is only more poignant in the Niger Delta because the wealth that largely sustains this nation emanates from there. Hardly a week goes by without our sensibilities being assailed by media reports of billion naira / dollar corruption scandals at all levels of government - 16 billion dollars allegedly wasted on phantom power projects, the reported disappearance of 1.5 trillion naira NNPC funds, National Judicial Council 1.2 billion naira scandal etc

Thus, instead of this divisive ethnic sectarian bickering and North-South dichotomy, we the Nigerian masses regardless of ethnicity or creed should unite to dethrone the corrupt ruling elite that have ruined our nation in order to establish a new political order. The much talked about, but yet to bes realised Nigerian revolution. Until corruption is eradicated and the present cabal of kleptocrats are deposed, even 100% derivation wouldn't make much difference to the average Niger Deltan.

(Leadership Nigeria)

DHQ vs Nigerian Media

2008-09-09T13:30:00.002Z

The recent allegation by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) that news media houses in the country publish false and unsubstantiated reports on its activities has once again re-opened an old debate: The social responsibility of the press and need for public institutions to always carry the people, who are the primary reason for the institutions’ existence, along.

The military high command was reacting to recent news reports that 35 people – 29 soldiers and six militants – were killed during a shootout between the Joint Task Force (JTF) and Niger Delta militants. Defence Spokesman, Brig. Gen, M. D. Yusuf debunked the claims of any shootout between the JTF and militants on the reported date. He said the report was “a mere fabrication of lies concocted in the deep recesses of the evil minds of the militants to cause confusion”, and threatened to seek legal redress against any media organisation that publishes false or unsubstantiated reports on its activities or operations.

We are persuaded that no responsible media house would take delight in publishing falsehood, especially in matters that border on national security. This is not to say there are no bad eggs in the industry. They are in every industry. But we also know that the ability of responsible media houses to report stories fairly and on time depends on the readiness of all respondents in a story to supply required information in a timely manner.

Journalism is driven by deadlines. The relationship between the journalists and the military high command, which is supposed to be mutually beneficial for national progress, has sometimes been mutually antagonistic, especially in recent past. The two appeared to have unnecessarily worked at cross-purposes, especially under military rule. For, while journalists expect unhindered access to information, the military, being traditionally secretive, would do everything to conceal vital information. But one would have expected that this practice had gone with military rule. A vital ingredient of democracy is freedom of the press, which includes unhindered access to information.

We notice that the militants appear to be winning the propaganda war because of their management of information. Curiously, they serve notice of some of their attacks, and confirm they have attacked their target after the exercise. Some of the militants also run efficient websites. While the militant groups, especially the publicity conscious Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), are ever ready to part with information, the military, by tradition, is circumspect about sharing information.

Herein lies the predicament of the journalist as he is torn between two extremes – a source that is ever open to inquiry and another that often is reticent. But neither can do without the other. We therefore see the need for mutual understanding and cooperation between the media and the military in the interest of national security. Towards this end, we call for closer collaboration between the military and the media. And one way of achieving this is through regular engagement such as workshops and seminars, and even press briefings. For example, a weekly press briefing by the JTF will not be out of place. So much goes on in the Niger Delta in a day. The engagement will make for better appreciation of each other’s challenges. We however call on our colleagues not to lose sight of the fact that our rights to disseminate information, although sacrosanct and non-negotiable, are not without regulation. Some measure of self-restraint is necessary for the sake of societal well being and national security.

Thus, we owe it a patriotic duty to exercise some caution in reporting the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta creeks. For, it is now public knowledge that the genuine struggle of the Niger Delta people for justice appears to have been hijacked by felons.Journalists should be wary of dishing out unconfirmed information with which they are daily bombarded by these militant groups, as most of them “are mere fabrication of lies”, as rightly observed by the Defence spokesman. However, the stated option by the DHQ to seek legal redress against “errant” media outfits as against the old resort to law of the jungle whereby journalists were brutalized for reports considered offensive by military men, is commendable. At least, it has shown that the democratic tradition is catching on, as even the military now appears to repose some confidence in the law courts as the only avenue to redress perceived wrongs.

(This Day)

The Larry Bowoto Saga

2008-09-08T13:44:00.002Z

Over the coming weeks, don’t be surprised to see an increasing amount of news coverage for a Nigerian militant named Larry Bowoto. Bowoto claims that 10 years ago he was a peaceful, environmental protestor, visiting an oil platform off his country's coast when, without warning, he was shot by the Nigerian military at Chevron’s request.

That’s the story Mr. Bowoto wants people to believe as he teams with lawyers from Nigeria and the U.S. in an attempt to coerce Chevron into paying money or facing trial next month in San Francisco. The reality is that Mr. Bowoto and his team of lawyers are playing a game of jackpot justice with the hopes of winning a big settlement from Chevron.

The ultimate problem for Mr. Bowoto and his legal team is that once you move beyond the headlines and his false claims, the facts and evidence paint a much different picture of Mr. Bowoto, his motivations and his anything but peaceful actions.

Here are the facts as Human Events sees them:

Mr. Bowoto and his group were dissatisfied with the way in which the respected, legitimate leaders from his community allocated jobs provided by Chevron Nigeria. Letters were sent to the company, signed by Mr. Bowoto and his group, threatening “sea piracy,” “violence” and a possible “mass riot” if their demands for jobs and money were not met. Chevron Nigeria (CNL) was specifically instructed by the recognized community leaders not to negotiate with Bowoto and to ignore his bullying and threats, which CNL did. Unfortunately, Bowoto made good on his threats of violence. With more than 100 fellow militants, Bowoto took the law into his own hands and seized a Chevron Nigeria oil platform, a barge and a tugboat.

According to eyewitnesses, his group blocked the barge and platform helidecks so the crews could not leave, and at one point his men poured diesel on the floor of the barge and threatened to set it ablaze. They also made verbal threats and used physical force to intimidate Chevron Nigeria crews, who considered themselves hostages and feared for their lives.

For three long days Chevron Nigeria’s workers were held hostage and the company attempted to negotiate their release without incident. At the end of third day, Chevron Nigeria asked local authorities to stop the takeover and move the protesters out. That is when -- according to eyewitness accounts -- the hostage takers attacked the law enforcement rescue team and shootings occurred. Even after the rescue effort, Mr. Bowoto’s group forcibly took some of the workers to onshore villages where they were held for several more days.

Mr. Bowoto’s attempt to manipulate these facts into an intentional plot by Chevron Nigeria for the law enforcement authorities to shoot members of his group is outrageous. A rival tribe's invasion of the same barge three months earlier ended peacefully because that tribe did not attack law enforcement personnel. Chevron Nigeria fully intended that the siege by Mr. Bowoto’s group would end peacefully as well. Our concern was for the safety and freedom of everyone, including the Chevron Nigeria crews.In the U.S. judicial system, it will be up to the jury to weigh the credibility of Mr. Bowoto’s testimony against that of the workers who have testified that Mr. Bowoto and other kidnappers held them hostage and threatened their lives. Unfortunately, in the Niger Delta today, kidnapping by ethnic militants has become an all-too-favored tactic.

As one of Mr. Bowoto’s sympathizers wrote: “Kidnapping of oil workers for ransom is a favored tactic of the militants.” And as one of his lawyers wrote, “… we think it [the case] will likely settle before trial -- Chevron doesn’t want to face a jury on this ….”This type of criminal conduct, and blatant attempt at extortion, has no place in civilized society.

And Mr. Bowoto and his fellow tribesman had no business being on the platform in the first place. Simply put, their actions were illegal.

Chevron Nigeria is proud of its record of building and supporting hospitals, schools, job training, employment and educational opportunities for the people of the Niger Delta, including Mr. Bowoto’s tribe. Mr. Bowoto is entitled to his opinion that a company should do even more in this regard. But he is not entitled to hold innocent people hostage to extort money and secure more jobs from Chevron Nigeria or anyone else. That does not constitute a “peaceful protest” by any standard. If Mr. Bowoto had seized an offshore oil facility in the United States, he would be behind bars. Instead, he is a free man taking improper advantage of the U.S. judicial system and using America’s press to spread his outrageous and false charges.

(Human Events)

Background on Arrested American Journalist

2008-09-08T13:40:00.001Z

Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrest of US freelance journalist and filmmaker Andrew Berends and his Nigerian interpreter, Samuel George, in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt on 31 August on a spying charge. Berends was provisionally released after 36 hours but was told to report back to the State Security Service in Port Harcourt this morning. George is still being held.

"Berends was arrested just for doing his job and no other reason," Reporters Without Borders said. "It is absurd for the authorities to think that, by arresting him and his interpreter, they can conceal the economic and ecological disaster unfolding in the Niger Delta. Both of them must be freed at once and left alone. This is the third time in a year that baseless charges of spying have been brought against foreign journalists."

After being arrested on the Port Harcourt waterfront, Berends and George were detained in appalling conditions in a cell at the local headquarters of the State Security Service. They were given no food and very little water, and were subjected to repeated interrogation that prevented them from sleeping.

Berends' equipment, telephones and film were confiscated. He was freed provisionally yesterday but was told to return to the SSS office at 9 a.m. today. In a brief email message which he managed to send after being released, he said he had been charged with spying. His interpreter was not released.

The winner of several awards, Berends has been in the Niger Delta since April making a film about this strategic oil-producing area where government forces and armed separatists have been fighting for years.

Four US documentary filmmakers and their Nigerian fixer were held for six days on spying charges for the same reason in April. And two German journalists and a US activists were detained for two weeks in September 2007 for similar reasons.

(oneworld)

Boat Attacked

2008-09-08T13:34:00.002Z

Nigerian gunmen reportedly killed a crew member of a supply vessel and abducted another in the latest attack on the oil industry in the restive Niger Delta, the army said on Sunday.

The Fulmar Lamnco, operated by the local unit of Italy's energy group Eni, was travelling from Brass to Port Harcourt, the region's main city, when it was attacked early on Sunday.

Officials of the oil multinational in Nigeria could not be immediately contacted for comment.
"One crew member (was) reportedly killed and (another) abducted," Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state, said.

The nationalities of the crewmen was not immediately known and no group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Those responsible for the dastardly act are yet to be identified ... the motive is pecuniary." Musa said.

He said the father of a local politician was kidnapped in a separate incident in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, apparently for ransom.

The latest boat attack came barely three weeks after gunmen hijacked a supply vessel belonging to oil services company West Africa Offshore with eight Nigerian crew members.

(Reuters)

Community Leader Kidnapped

2008-09-08T13:30:00.000Z

Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped a community leader from his home in the Nigeria's volatile oil region, a military spokesman said Sunday.

Alabo Noble Diri, a traditional chief of Kalaibiama-Opobo in Rivers state, was abducted on Saturday, Lieutenant Colonel Musa Sagir told AFP, adding that his whereabouts were unknown.
He said no one immediately claimed responsibility for the seizure, the latest to hit the restive region in recent months.

Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings of local and foreign workers and relatives of prominent politicians in the past two years, often by criminal gangs seeking a ransom, but sometimes also for political ends.

African Oil Countries Benefit from Western Hypocracy

2008-09-06T13:41:00.001Z

by William Gumede, The Guardian

Western powers are selective in their censure of African regimes guilty of misrule, while ignoring those countries with oil, or who are allies in the US "war on terror". For example, Robert Mugabe has been rightly pilloried by the west for running Zimbabwe into the ground. Yet Mugabe's great ally, Angola's Eduardo dos Santos, whose ruling MPLA is going into a parliamentary election today, has an equally appalling record of autocratic rule. But Angola's fabulous oil wealth has silenced western criticisms of the regime's terrible human rights abuses.

The last time Angola held elections was 16 years ago. Dos Santos came to power in 1979, a year before Mugabe took power in Zimbabwe. Angola's economy has logged economic growths well into double digit figures on the back of oil, yet a small well-connected political and business elite, centred around the Dos Santos family, mostly benefits, while the majority of the country's population lives on far less then $2 a day. Fernando Macedo, the head of Angola's main human rights group, the Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy, says "people talk about blood diamonds, but oil from Angola could be called blood oil".

It is now clear that oil wealth protects African dictators from international pressure to democratise. Western hypocrisy was evident in the fact that early in Zimbabwe's meltdown, western governments and media criticisms of Mugabe focused mainly on the plight of the large white expatriate community there. Yet, the problem in Zimbabwe has never been solely about blacks attacking whites, but about a despicable regime terrorising its population – both black and white. Immediately after the country's April 2008 elections, which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change won, Angola put its troops at the ready to aid Mugabe. Angola allowed the Chinese ship, An Yue Jiang, and its consignment of deadly weapons bought by Mugabe to bolster his military and police in the event of uprisings following his rigging of the elections, to dock in Angolan ports, after it was forced to turn back from South Africa following the most unprecedented continent-wide civil society solidarity against the ship offloading its deadly cargo in African ports. African regimes with lots of oil can buy off western criticisms. Nigeria, another major African oil producer, is another misruled country that often escapes western censure.

To put it politely, western powers were lukewarm in their criticisms of Nigeria's openly rigged elections in 2007. Omar al-Bashir came to power in Sudan in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, overthrowing a government elected democratically. Western criticisms of him do arise, but they seem too little, too late. Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema also took power in a coup in 1979, and has scheduled fake elections in which he regularly captures 99.8% of the vote. He is living a charmed life. Libya's Muammar Gadafy who came to power in 1977 in a coup, is now warmly embraced by the European Union, Britain and the US.

If not oil, African dictators aligning themselves with the US "war on terror" also escape censure, even if they batter critics at home. Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi are cases in point. Swaziland, one of Africa's most notoriously badly run countries, regularly accuses perfectly legitimate critics of "terrorism" before carting them off to jail. Swaziland also escapes scrutiny because its absolute monarch, King Mswati, claims to run the country along pre-colonial "traditional" lines, called the Tinkundla system. But this is nothing but tyranny, ostensibly in the name of "tradition" and "culture". Yet, it appears, the some western powers find the Swazi Tinkundla system very exotic, even if it's out-and-out despotic. Unless the west tackles these obvious blindspots, their criticisms of African misrule, although desperately needed, will ring hollow.

Nigerian President's Health in Question

2008-09-06T13:36:00.001Z

Nigeria's President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua returned home from Saudi Arabia Saturday, a government official said, amid questions about his health.

A Saudi hospital official last weekend said the head of state had been hospitalised there for several days, but did not disclose any details.

Nigerian independent media has been awash with reports that Yar'Adua, 57, underwent surgery there for renal problems.

"The president came back this morning," the official in Yar'Adua's office told AFP, without providing further details.

Speculation has mounted about the president's health in recent days after he left the country more than two weeks ago for a religious pilgrimage. It later emerged that he had been in a Jeddah hospital for several days.

Officials, however, have insisted he was in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage with Information Minister John Odey stating on Wednesday that he had taken the "opportunity to undertake a medical check-up."

The opposition on Thursday demanded that the authorities provide details of the president's health, which they said was not a private affair, but one with implications for the stability of the country.

(AFP)

American Filmmaker Charged with Spying Released for the Weekend

2008-09-06T13:33:00.001Z

Andrew Berends, an American filmmaker who was arrested Sunday and charged with spying, has been moved to the capital, Abuja, and released for the weekend. He is still under arrest, however, and must report back to the State Security Services on Monday. American Embassy officials in Nigeria and State Dept officials in Washington are working for his full release. Mr. Berends’s Nigerian interpreter, Samuel George, has also been released. Amnesty International had issued a statement warning that Mr. George might have been tortured and urged that both men be released immediately.

(NY Times)

Two Hostages Released

2008-09-06T13:30:00.000Z

Two French citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria early last month have been freed, France's foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The two had been seized near Nigeria's oil industry hub of Port Harcourt in the restive Niger Delta on August 2.

The French foreign ministry said in a statement the pair were expected back in France in the next few days.

Insecurity in Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, has cut crude output by around a fifth since militants launched a campaign of sabotage in early 2006 to press for greater development in their neglected communities.

(Reuters)

Military Denies MEND Claims

2008-08-31T17:39:00.001Z

Nigeria's most prominent militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, says it killed some 29 government soldiers and lost six of its own members in a series of reprisal attacks against the army on Saturday. The army denies there had been any attack. Gilbert da Costa reports from the Nigerian capital, Abuja.A spokesman for the Nigerian military in the restive Niger Delta, Lieutenant Colonel Rabe Abubakar, told VOA no fighting involving government forces and oil rebels has been reported in the Niger Delta. He dismissed rebels' claim of having killed 29 soldiers in three separate attacks.

"I have just spoken to the battalion commander in Bayelsa, and he confirmed to be that all his troops are intact. In fact there was no encounter, talk less of some people have died. There was no encounter whatsoever between the militants and the military. They [militants] keep on concocting different lie. All these things are gimmicks towards portraying us to be either weak, or portraying us to be wicked, or incapable of handling the situation in the Niger Delta," he said.

The main rebel group said the attacks were in response to recent killings of unarmed civilians by soldiers in the Delta, a vast wetlands region which has all of Nigeria's oil.The group said it used fast attack boats, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles in the action it called Operation Hunter Hunted.

MEND emerged in early 2006 as the leading group calling for a greater share of Nigeria's oil revenues for the oil producing Niger Delta. It has carried out a series of deadly attacks in recent months.Violence in the Delta is rooted in poverty, corruption and lawlessness. Most inhabitants have seen few benefits from five decades of oil extraction that has damaged their environment.Thousands of foreign oil workers have left in the past two years as violence has spiraled, and some industry executives see the situation descending further into lawlessness.

Since the beginning of 2006, attacks by militants in the restive Delta region have cut by 20 percent oil production in Nigeria, Africa's biggest crude producer and the eighth largest world exporter.

(VOA)

MEND Claims 29 Military Killed

2008-08-31T17:37:00.001Z

Nigeria's main militant group claims it has killed 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the country's restive southern oil region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says in an e-mail statement Saturday that the near-simultaneous battles came in the three main oil-producing states in the south.

The group reports six of its own fighters were killed in the clashes. They say they launched the assaults as reprisals for attacks they allege the military carried out on civilians.

Officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

(AP)

FPSO Threatened

2008-08-30T13:46:00.001Z

Some members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have condemned the frequent attack on oil facilities in the Niger Delta by militia groups. They said these attacks have always been counter-productive for the people of the region. The group led by Timi Warilado decried the recent attack on Royal Dutch Shell’s Bonga field and its Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, located 75 miles off the Nigerian coast in the Gulf of Guinea on June 19. Warilado said the assault, which shut down the vessel’s 225,000 barrel per day production, also caused major oil spillage in some areas.

“We have, on several occasions, condemned the attacks, and some of their criminal activities. We have also said that we can no longer belong to such groups whose interest is to cause untold hardship on the people of the Niger Delta. “Our stance has made the leadership of MEND to declare some ex-members of the militia group wanted. Efe Makoli, Samuel Izera and three others may have been killed by the group when they carried out a raid on our hideout in Ogbogoro area of River State, as we do not know their whereabouts. Some alleged that they escaped,” he added. Warilado added that the irony of the matter was that even the Federal Government still sees them as hoodlums, while MEND perceives them to be traitors.

The leader alleged that the Federal Government’s earlier belief that the facility was beyond the reach of militant groups was an understatement, since members of the group can stay at sea several days with little or no food.

(This Day)

MEND Rescinds Offers Help to Rescue Israeli

2008-08-29T15:00:00.002Z

The main militant group in Nigeria's Niger Delta region says it has located a kidnapped Israeli businessman, but has rescinded its offer to help rescue him.

Nigerian police say gunmen kidnapped the Israeli businessman from his home in the Niger Delta's main city, Port Harcourt, late Tuesday. In a statement sent to reporters Thursday a spokesman for the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it is now demanding an apology from Israel National News, a broadcast service which described MEND as a terrorist group.

The MEND statement says it will now plead with the businessman's captors to be human but will not otherwise intervene.

On Tuesday, the group had said it was not involved in the Israeli man's kidnapping and offered to help secure his release. The Israeli Foreign Ministry says it is doing everything it can to secure the man's release as quickly as possible. Rivers state police say the victim's driver has been arrested on suspicion he was involved in the abduction.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in the oil-producing region since 2006. Most have been released unharmed for a ransom.Militants have carried out attacks and kidnappings in the Niger Delta as part of a campaign to direct more oil revenue to local communities. Criminal gangs in the region have also exploited the situation and carried out kidnappings for ransom.

The government has deployed a military joint task force to the Niger Delta region to counter attacks that have reduced the nation's oil production.

(VOA)

Apalling Conditions in Niger Delta Decried

2008-08-29T14:46:00.002Z

Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Professor Walter C. Carrington, who served as the American Envoy between November 1993 and October 1997 was on a visit to Nigeria a couple of days back during which time he delivered a lecture. He also granted interview to some journalists in Lagos on various issues ranging from the US politics, the Nigerian media, his experience as the US Envoy in Nigeria, particularly under a military regime and the Niger/Delta problem.

He also talked about the United States electoral process and the lessons African countries, especially Nigeria can learn from the way democracy is practiced in America.Excerpts:

You were in Nigeria before as the US Ambassador. How would you compare the period you served here with the present situation in Nigeria?

To me now, Nigeria has become a different country from what it was when I was here as the Ambassador. For instance, the issue of the freedom for the media, is a ready example. Then, many of the publications that many of you represent would probably not have been publishing quite a number of stories due to the prevalent condition then.

A number of you from the way you were carrying on your profession might be different now. I knew quite a number of people at that time cannot produce their reports from their offices like now. Some of you then produced from their laptops in their cars somewhere, they were working under a great threat then. What I cherished much is that most of you were able to persevere under what I called a very dangerous kind of situation. Now you have a system in which the people have the right to decide who their leaders should be.

The system makes the job of the press to be easier now.The role of the press as the watchdog of the society is something important, especially in bringing to the public what the government would rather not want to be mentioned. The press to me has to continue to function well and be the watchdog of the people. The problem arising from the agitation by the people of the Niger/Delta to control their oil resources has taken an international dimension recently.

In what way do you think these problems could be resolved?

As far as the problems in the Niger/Delta and the international world are concerned, I would say that one of the causes of the problems is for the authority to deal justly with the people of the Niger/Delta. When I was here, the issue of derivation and what happened to the resources generated from the oil resources were the burning issues. Today it is still the same thing.

Let me use the states like Texas and Oklahoma as example in the United States. These two states are the centre of the US oil and when one examines them you see how well they do. You come back to the Niger/Delta and see the appalling conditions prevalent in the area. It has been so for sometimes, and I am greatly concerned. I think there has to be justice. Until that happens you continue to have the type of unrest that faced the country and the world now.

Secondly, there is more interest from the outside world because of the oil. But that does not mean that the interest is limited only to the fact that there is oil in that area. It is not because there is availability of the oil, but the understanding that there should be pressure to make the situation better than what it is today. That is one of the greatest challenges that is facing Nigeria today.

How would you think Nigerians, especially the people in the media can maximise the opportunity available to them and ensure that democracy thrives in Nigeria and Africa?

You cannot have a democracy without a free press and you cannot have a free press without democracy. So the two go hand in hand. It is important that the press does its job without inhibitions. If you have the press that people can trust, the better it is. If they feel you are too partisan or may be you are in the pay role of some people that would definitely affect the profession, you may have some credibility problems. You have to be independent and the media is the voice of the people. That is very important. But you and I understand that you cannot limit your coverage to sensational stories alone. As I said, whenever something is buried, you have to dig it out.

How do you assess the present government’s approach to the numerous battles against corruption in Nigeria?

Actually, I cannot comment now on what is happening about corruption and the EFCC. When it was established I had great hope and the idea behind it was a good one and I have to point out that it is very important that the anti-corruption agencies needed to be independent for them to operate without the government intervention. In the United States, it is the type of thing where we appoint special prosecutors to do. They go after government officials who may have been involved in corrupt practices. I think sometimes in the past it often had been seen that it (EFCC) goes after the opponents of the regime. I hope that has changed now. But it is important that the agencies have to be independent. You cannot see a better fight against corruption when such agencies are the arm of government or agency of a political party.

What do you think Nigeria can learn from the electioneering process in America, especially when it (Nigeria) is now embarking on a move to reform its electoral process?

The very important aspect of the electoral process is for it to be open and transparent. Every citizen has to feel that they have as much inputs on elections as anybody else, ensuring that it is not any godfathers running the process and that everybody is involved. The only way you can do that is to have a system that requires that political parties and candidates publish who gave them money and how the money is used. In America we have the limit of how much an individual can give and who can give money, especially from the corporate organisations. The most important thing is that you need to get your political operators accountable to the state.You also have to get a system that punishes those who break the law. You cannot have a situation where people are driving away other people from voting, where they are using money to influence people to vote. In our own country (US), our parties in terms of policy assist the candidate to raise money and make people to vote. Beyond that the party cannot determine how a person runs the government. You owe your allegiance to people who elected you into office, not to the party or to any godfather. That is extremely important that your first loyalty is to the people not the party. The party cannot dictate in the United States to any candidate, they cannot sanction .

This reminds me a question asked by a 75-year old democrat, who was asked the party he belongs to. He responded that I do not belong to any organised party, but I am a democrat. In our system the party does not control candidate.

I would say that in Nigeria and in most other countries in Africa, Barrack Obama or John Macchain may not get their party nomination. This is because both of them did not come from the lines of big men from the parties. Clinton was already with the democratic party and in other situation she would get the nomination of her party considering the kind of support she had.John Macchain on his own did not even have the support of the White House, you imagine a candidate of a ruling party here getting nomination of his party without the support of Aso Rock. That is the strength of the America political system.

What is the feeling of the American government about the present administration of Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua, especially from the premise that the election that brought him (Yar’Adua) to office was extremely faulted?

I do not have the inside access to the government on their feelings about the present government of Yar’Adua. I think that people generally hope that he will be an effective president for Nigeria. I think people are already impressed with his style and the fact that he himself is an upright man. Beyond that I cannot comment. I did know his brother, who was killed by the Abacha people. I hope and believe that he will perform as expected. I believe it would be better for Nigerians to comment more on that.The western press to some of us are more sensationalised like you have said about Nigerian press.

The Western press never report anything positive about Africa. What is your view about this?

As far as coverage and sensationalisation is concerned, the American press almost share the same things with you. There is no doubt about that. Also, there is no question that Africa is not covered the way it ought to be. In fact, I organised a conference in Boston on the press; the way it does and does not cover Africa. I called it“Africa uncovered.” The problem is that people don’t know much about Africa, they have too many stories. People still think about Africa as a country rather than a continent. There is no understanding on the great differences on the individual kind of issue that one have to deal with. These are issues of concern. I always felt that Africa still needs much more attention and coverage.

In view of the fact that Nigeria practices presidential system of government and fails while America practices the same system, do you suggest that we opt for another system of government?

This is another area where it is only Nigerians that can effectively and competently speak on. It is not an issue that an outsider can successfully discuss. For the mere reason that other people are doing it does not mean that it is necessary you have to do it. It is not a good reason. Whether the system is corrupt or not corrupt legal or illegal, moral or immoral, the fact that other people are doing it as well doesn’t make it more legal, doesn’t make it more moral or corrupt or less corrupt. You have to judge each case on its value and its relevance.

If you are inculcating an idea into a child, it is not because another kid is doing it, that makes it right. It is wrong to conclude that somebody is doing something, others have to adopt the same system.

Can you give us an insight into your book being compiled about Nigeria?

My wife’s here, she is always asking me the question, when are you going to finish writing the book? The book is going to be a study about Nigeria, the military rule, using the Abacha period as a focus point. But definitely, I will move beyond that because, I will address the question of democracy, the question of human rights and the American policy. It will be an authority in the account of that period. It will also discuss what our policy was and the policy of some other countries. I hope to give account of my stay in Nigeria as well as I can, and to discuss the history of Nigeria up to that period and some of the things that happened. That is all I hope to do. Also I will try and answer many questions about that period as I can, from my perspective.

Let us know the issues that will be on the front burner at the convention of the Democratic Party in the U.S. and also we want you to explain the significance of electoral college in America’s electoral process?

In the elections, there are two overriding issues. One is the issue of National Security and foreign policy, the other is the question of the economy. The dollar is not as strong as it used to be while the economy is not as healthy as it was before. So, this is the situation.There is another issue that is receiving serious attention now in the US, with the two main political parties, the Republican and the Democratic persuading their supporters. That is the right of a woman to choose, whether or not to carry a pregnancy.

The question of abortion is a big issue, precisely because, the next President of the United States will name one or two members to the Supreme Court. There were nine members of the Supreme Court. This is a single and important appointment that any US President can make. They are the final determinant of what is constitutional and what is not. Next to the President, they are probably the most important and powerful people in the country. Certainly they are the most powerful unelected people in the country. Currently, the court is divided, five to four on the controversial issue of abortion.

There was a famous case in the 70’s which established the rights of a woman in the constitution on whether or not to have abortion which was a private right and that the state could not get involved. And ever since then, the conservative in the United States opposed to that have been trying to overturn it. Right now, on most circumstances it is legal to have abortion. This is really a big issue in the United States now, as to the question of who is going to remain as the Justices of the Supreme Court.

Because, the two people who are likely to leave the court are both supporters of the right of women to have abortion. So, this is one issue dividing the country right now. You see the Democratic platform much more in support of the women’s right, while the Republican’s extreme view is that abortion is illegal, even if the health of the mother is at risk. That is most extreme.

(Vanguard)

Kidnapping: Rivers State Bemoans Problem

2008-08-23T14:14:00.002Z

These are definitely not happy times for the Rivers State Government and its helmsman, Governor Chibuike Amaechi. No thanks to those behind the spate of abductions, a thriving filthy lucre in the state, and the mindless blood letting by unrepentant cultists, the regime’s long-launched race for the development of the oil-rich state has been showed down.

Suddenly, once busy project sites spread all over the state have been turned into scenes of near graveyard silence, not because of the poor funding but due to the race for dear life by workers.

As most top government functionaries, particularly, the governor has announced publicly, the government’s spirit and purse are willingly to get the projects that run into scores of billions of Naira going but the work men are scarcely there.

The last straw that broke the camel’s already aching back was the kidnap of two expatriate staff of construction giant, Julius Berger, in-charge of most of the major road and bridge construction projects of the administration.Apparently afraid that the hostage-takers might come for more of its prized workers, the company fled the state about six weeks ago, leaving behind, unfinished projects many of which were scheduled to be completed and handed over before the first anniversary of the regime in late October, this year.

Prominent among the projects are the Eleme Junction Fly-Over in Port Harcourt that was meant to end the nightmare of motorists who ply that axis of ever-busy Port Harcourt-Aba Express Way and a similar one that is to link the Eagle Island to the capital city and the suburbs as well as the Eastern By-PassAmadiama Road bridge.

Besides, the consequent endless traffic hold-ups, the abandoned projects have also swallowed several thousands of gainful employments.Speaking recently at a thanksgiving service held at the New Covenant Anglican Church, Port Harcourt for Mrs Bright Hayford, wife of the Chairman of the Federated Correspondents Chapel of NUJ in the State, Mr. Lawson Hayford, the governor stated that more than 4,500 indigenes of the state lost their jobs to Julius Berger’s exit.

Bemoaning the dwindling socio-economic fortunes of the spate of violence and kidnapping for ransom, Governor Amaechi told the worshipers that many companies have fled the state due to insecurity.

In an indirect answer-back to those urging for dialogue with the “insurgents so-called” as Justice Kayode Eso who heads the State Truth and Reconciliation Commission would want them identified, the governor said the preferred drug for social ailment is official use of force.“I believe that as a government, the greatest challenge I have is security.

The solution is the use of force.“I assure you that we will confront them and I want you to be behind us. We must do the right thing”.He saw those behind the orgy of abductions and violence as self-confessed barefaced criminals who are after their selfish interests and insisted that they must be hunted down.

Already, many suspected hide-outs of the insurgents have been combed by the government forces and scores of suspected militants either mowed or arrested. And the anti-militants war beat goes on.

Daily Sun

Shell Problems Continue

2008-08-23T14:08:00.001Z

Oil production at an oil installation off the Nigerian coast remains halted because staff are suffering from shock after a militant attack, officials say.

The attack on the Royal Dutch Shell facility stopped about 10% of Nigeria's oil production. Shell also said the militants had damaged equipment.

An American hostage was released after a few hours.

It is the first attack on an offshore facility, previously thought safe despite a wave of inshore attacks.

Shell also said the emergency shutdown might have damaged equipment, which would have to be repaired.

The raid took place on the Bonga oil platform about 120km (75 miles) off the coast of the Niger Delta.

Shell has also been blamed for an oil spill in the Ogoni region of the Delta.

Oil is gushing from disused pipes abandoned by the company when it left the region nearly 15 years ago, following local protests.

Attacks on the inshore Niger Delta have helped drive up world oil prices and previously cut Nigeria's output by about 20%.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) claimed it carried out the attack in an e-mail sent to journalists.

Several people were reported to have been injured. Mend says it is campaigning for a greater share of the region's oil wealth to be kept by local people, but the government says they are criminals, motivated by the ransoms they receive from oil companies.

Ogoni spill

Our correspondent says Bonga was new, expensive and working well despite the difficulties and repeated attacks affecting the company's inshore operations in the Delta.

The militants in the Delta are getting more sophisticated and better equipped and armed, he says.

Now they have proven that in terms of distance at least, all of Nigeria's facilities are within their reach.

Local activists in the Ogoni region have asked Shell to come and contain the oil spill that has covered farmland.

The yellow brown oil is flowing through the village of Kpor and into a stream about a mile away.

Villagers told the BBC they heard a "thunderous noise" and ran to the spot to see oil spraying all over their land.

Last week the government revoked Shell's rights to drill for oil in Ogoni saying the company had "lost the trust" of the local community.

Shell stopped drilling there in 1993 after pressure from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) and it has not returned since.

A Shell spokesman said in the past such spills have been because saboteurs damaged sealed well heads.

Source: BBC

Oil Output On The Rise

2008-08-23T14:03:00.000Z

NIGERIA’S crude oil output bounced back from two months consecutive drop which saw it lose its number one slot as Africa’s top producer to Angola, to close at 1.9 million barrels per day in the month of July, a Platt survey revealed.

The country’s oil production also showed signs of improvement in the first few days of August with an average of more than 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd).

Nigeria’s production got a boost from restored shut in volumes, increasing by 100,000 bpd in July to average 1.9 million bpd over the month.

However, indications are that the volume of crude oil still shut in owing to attacks by militants as well as technical issues at fields in the Niger Delta stood at 1.533 million bpd, more shut in volumes than has ever been recorded in peace time anywhere.

In May, Nigeria’s output stood at 1.86 million barrels per day, while production for June dropped to 1.8 million barrels per day.

Angola’s output has risen steadily as new fields off the country’s coast come on stream and this is on course to climb by 30,000 barrels per day in July.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) 13 members boosted their collective crude oil production by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July to average 32.77 million bpd over the month, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials just released.

Excluding Iraq, the 12 members bound by output agreements produced an average 30.31 million bpd in July, or 330,000 bpd more than June’s 29.98 million bpd and 637,000 bpd in excess of their 29.673 million bpd target, the survey showed.

“It’s notable that suddenly, with output rising, OPEC officials are concerned about adherence to quotas and oversupply,” said Platts Global Director of Oil John Kingston. “However, as we look toward the fourth quarter of the year, barring a more significant decline in demand, the world is going to need OPEC oil to avoid a larger inventory draw than is normal for the fourth quarter. Pulling inventories at that rate would be very bullish for prices.”

Increases totalling 390,000 bpd from Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia were partly offset by declines in Libya and Iraq.

The biggest single increase came from Saudi Arabia, which delivered on its promise to boost output to 9.7 million bpd in July from 9.45 million bpd in June.

Libyan volumes, already down in May and June because of repair work at Total’s al-Jurf field, fell further in July as maintenance work got underway on a pipeline linking the Waha and Defa oil fields.

Libya’s top oil official, Shokri Ghanem, who heads the National Oil Corporation, told Platts last week that the work on the pipeline and the field would continue for some weeks.

Iraqi volumes fell by 30,000 bpd to 2.46 million bpd. OPEC ministers meet September 9 in Vienna. International crude futures prices have fallen by some 20 per cent from records above $147/barrel in early July and some ministers have talked of possible intervention if prices continue on their sharp downtrend.

Iranian oil minister Gholamhossein Nozari said earlier this month that if prices continued to fall, the Vienna meeting would focus on closer adherence to production targets, while his Qatari counterpart, Abdullah al-Attiyah, said OPEC was ready to intervene to restore market balance if it felt supply was outstripping demand.

MEND Accuses Army of Extrajudicial Executions

2008-08-20T14:23:00.001Z

The most prominent armed group in Nigeria's volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, MEND, Wednesday accused the military of carrying out extra-judicial executions of 22 captured insurgents in the region.

"The Joint Task Force of the military today carried out summary executions of all the cultists captured yesterday in Port Harcourt," the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) said in an e-mail to the media.

"Twenty-two ...were executed by the military, MEND said, responding to enquiries by AFP.

"Regardless of the perceived offences of the men, it is not for the military but for the law courts to decide on the penalty for each of the individuals. This action again demonstrates the indiscipline and frustration of the Nigerian military," it added.

The rebels were captured Tuesday during a gunbattle with the military in Nigeria's oil hub Port Harcourt in which at least two gang members died, military and industry sources said.
The military authorities were not available to comment on MEND's accusations Wednesday.

The Nigerian military stages periodic crackdowns on armed groups in the Niger Delta, where attacks by so-called militant groups have reduced Nigeria's oil output by more than one quarter.

MEND & Berger - An Analysis

2008-08-18T13:29:00.003Z

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) took on Julius Berger, a subsidiary of German construction giant Bilfinger Berger, saying it had built its Nigerian empire on the back of the country’s crude oil profits. It further accused it of making profits through corrupt dealings with government officials who awarded it lucrative contracts in return for free mansions and other incentives. The company is a household name in Nigeria, a market it has exploited for decades, mainly through close ties with successive governments.

Mend took issue with the fact that Julius Berger stopped operations in the delta after two of its workers were kidnapped by militants. The group gave the company a deadline to withdraw its staff from operations in the capital, Abuja, or it would remove them itself.

The government intervened on the company’s behalf, saying Mend would meet severe force if it carried out its threat to invade Abuja.

Mend told journalists the government had offered it a $20m bribe to prevent it from shifting the theatre of battle from the delta to Abuja. The rebels declined the bribe, so they said, but the story went remarkably quiet after that.

The corruption that has bedevilled development in Nigeria is most pervasive in the oil sector. But it is not just about that sector; it is also about the uses to which oil revenues have been put in the broader economy and who they have benefited. This, loosely, is the point Mend seemed to be making, albeit crudely.

But corruption is infectious and it is becoming common cause that the militants fighting for a better deal for communities in the delta are themselves becoming corrupt, thus making resolution of the problems more intractable.

In Nigeria, successive governments have, by ignoring the plight of communities in oil producing areas, created by default the rebel movement they now cannot control. Attempts by the Yar’Adua administration to tackle the problem have been constrained not just by the complexity of the problem but by the slippery nature of their opponents.

These groups, notably Mend, appear to be gaining in strength and influence and, some say, they are getting quite rich in the process.

As well as the alleged $20m bribe, Mend has been offered money to stop attacking oil pipelines and to allow those they have damaged to be repaired. The opportunities for extortion are endless.

Mend is not asking for development as much as it is asking for money, more specifically a much larger share of oil revenues for the oil-producing states so they can effect their own development.

That may sound simple but the oil-producing states have consistently been the most corrupt of Nigeria’s 36 states. Staggering sums given to state governments for development over the years have been siphoned off by officials.

Giving money direct to communities would sidestep official corruption but create other channels for corruption as there are no community development plans in place, nor local capacity, to absorb large revenue streams sustainably.

While the government wrings its hands over the issue, the situation is deteriorating. Violent clashes between soldiers and militants are becoming more common and increased security threats have led oil companies to relocate their staff and operations to Lagos. Production has been cut by about 20% after repeated attacks on oil pipelines, hitting government revenues.

But the push for all parties to act in good faith to resolve the problem will only happen when the money runs out and opportunities for corruption are removed. That is not likely to happen for some time.

So the delta communities may as well hunker down. Any light at the end of their tunnel is most likely to be an approaching train.

(Business Day)

Troops Claim 12 Militants Killed

2008-08-16T13:15:00.001Z

Twelve Nigerian militants and a naval officer were killed in a gunbattle on Friday near a Royal Dutch Shell natural gas plant in the oil-producing Niger Delta, military and security sources said.

Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in southern Rivers state, said militants ambushed two navy gunboats on patrol in Rivers state. The Shell-operated gas plant did not come under fire.

"This evening our men of the (Joint Task Force) came under attack around Alakiri on the Port Harcourt-Bonny sea route," said Musa. "We responded and exchanged fire and we killed several of the militants."

Two security sources said at least 12 militants and one soldier were killed in the fighting.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which launched a campaign of violence against the oil sector in early 2006, dismissed the high casualty report.

"No MEND units or affiliated groups have reported such heavy losses," the militant group said in an e-mailed statement.

Militant attacks on Nigeria's oil facilities have become increasingly frequent, shutting down a fifth of oil production in the last two years.

The Niger Delta Vigilante, a militant group with links to MEND, threatened more violence in the area.

"We are by this notice asking all oil companies and foreigners to leave Port Harcourt because there is no going back," said the group's spokesman, who uses the pseudonym Tamunokuro Ebitari.

"We are bringing the fight to their door post and we will not spare anybody or companies," he added.

The militant group said on Monday that its "diving unit" had attacked a pipeline owned by state-oil firm NNPC that supplies natural gas to the Alakiri flow station.

Officials with Nigeria's Joint Task Force, NNPC and Shell could not confirm the attack.

Various armed groups operate under the franchise of MEND, which says it is fighting for greater control of the region's oil resources.

(Reuters)

Share Gas or be Punished

2008-08-15T13:55:00.001Z

Nigeria's government on Thursday threatened to impose stiff penalties against foreign oil companies that fail to provide a certain amount of natural gas to the domestic market by the end of the year.

President Umaru Yar'Adua, under increasing pressure to rehabilitate a shoddy power sector, indicated he will soon declare a power emergency that would oblige international oil companies to share more of their gas.

The power crisis is one of the biggest brakes on growth in Africa's most populous country.

"Once the emergency is declared in the power sector, there will be stiff sanctions if they fail to meet their obligations and all of this will be clearly spelled out as pre-conditions for continued operations in our country," Olusegun Adeniyi, the president's spokesman, told reporters.
Nigeria warned that it could penalise oil firms via their exports if they do not abide by their domestic requirements.

"We have told ... Shell, Chevron, Agip and all the gas-producing companies the amount of gas they must supply to us before they can even export the gas," said Gas Minister Emmanuel Odusina.

He declined to elaborate on the specific requirements imposed on the oil companies
Nigeria's power problem has become so severe that much of the country goes without mains electricity for weeks, plunging neighbourhoods without private generators into darkness every night and heightening frustration among its 140 million people.

This is despite Nigeria having the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world, estimated at about 180 trillion cubic feet.

Nigeria's generation capacity has plunged to less than 1,000 megawatts from 3,000 MW a year ago, largely due to a lack of maintenance at power stations. South Africa, with a third of Nigeria's population, has over 10 times that capacity.

(Reuters)

Germans Rescued

2008-08-15T13:46:00.001Z

Two German employees of a Nigerian construction company have been rescued and released by militant group MEND. It's the first time the group has gotten involved to help resolve a kidnapping.

According to the German foreign ministry, two German workers kidnapped in Nigeria over a month ago have now been released. In a statement issued Friday, Aug. 15, ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said the two are receiving medical treatment and are doing well "considering the circumstances" and are in "good physical condition."

"The federal government is very relieved by their release," he added.

Employed by Julius Berger, a local affiliate of German construction company Bilfinger Berger, the two Germans were kidnapped on July 11 at Emohua in Rivers state in the Niger Delta, an area notorious for kidnappings. Around 15 unidentified gunmen travelling in armored jeeps accompanied by 28 soldiers seized the workers of the country's largest construction firm. The violent kidnappings prompted Julius Berger to suspend all of its operations in the delta. Despite the safe release of its workers, the company is sticking to its decision to pull out of the area, a spokesperson for the company told DPA news agency.

Act of kindness

Nigeria's most prominent militant group, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) rescued the hostages from the armed gang on Thursday, reported Reuters news service. Itself responsible for numerous attacks on oil companies that have consequently cut a fifth of Nigeria's oil output since early 2006, MEND released the Germans near the oil hub Port Harcourt.

The group, which had announced about a week after the kidnappings that it had identified those responsible and would work to free the hostages, was reportedly motivated to intervene because the two Germans were not employed in the energy sector, but rather were helping to build the delta's infrastructure.

Big player in Nigeria

The company Julius Berger is currently rebuilding the main east-west road across the Niger Delta. With more than 16,000 employees, it is one of the country's biggest private sector employers.

According to Reuters, MEND's rescue operation that concluded with the safe release of the German workers was the first time it had intervened in an act of kidnapping committed by another gang.

Foreign companies weigh profits against inherent dangers

An alarmingly dangerous area for foreigners, more than 200 people have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta since early 2006. Such security problems have prompted numerous foreign firms to pull out of the area, reports AFP. Almost all of the people seized in the Niger Delta to this point, however, have been freed unharmed.

(DW)

No Progress in Pipeline Repair

2008-08-15T13:41:00.002Z

Repairs to a damaged oil pipeline in Nigeria have been struggling to make significant progress, Royal Dutch Shell said on Friday.

Shell's Nembe Creek trunkline, located at Kula in Rivers state in the restive Niger Delta, was sabotaged in late-July.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major declared force majeure on Bonny Light crude exports to free itself from meeting its contractual obligations through to September.

"Repair work is not progressing as much as we want due to some security concerns. No real progress," a Shell spokesman said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has led a campaign of violence against the oil sector since early 2006, claimed responsibility for two pipeline attacks in July, including the Nembe Creek line.

Both pipelines are operated by Shell and are connected to the Bonny export terminal. Shell only confirmed the damage to the Nembe Creek line.

The spokesman said Bonny Light production has been unchanged at a low level but declined to specify the actual output volume.

Earlier, Shell said about 40,000 barrels per day of its equity production had been shut by the attacks. State run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) said the total outage volume of Bonny Light was 175,000 bpd.

Bonny Light's normal production level is about 400,000 bpd, which should make it the largest stream from Nigeria.

Shell reiterated that the pipeline repair work has not been completed. Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said earlier in August that all the pipelines damaged from the late-July attacks were fixed and some production had restarted.

Shell is the worst hit by militant sabotage in Nigeria. Repeated attacks to oil facilities have halted about a fifth of oil supplies from the world's eighth largest oil exporter, contributing to a rise in oil prices above $100 this year.

Unrest in Cross Rivers State

2008-08-13T14:09:00.002Z

Chief John Effiong flicks his arm out over the sweep of cleared forest in Cross Rivers State, Nigeria, which is gradually being turned into a building site.

His home, his pineapple grove and the shrine where he worshipped his ancestors' spirits have all been swept away by bulldozers.

They have been cleared to make way for people displaced by the handover of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon, due to be completed on Thursday.

"My farm was more than 20 acres. As of now the government has taken it, those people who think they are wiser than me. A hungry man is an angry man. I'm hungry," Chief Effiong says.

In one corner of the land three- or four-room bungalows are being built to house the people from Bakassi.

But the plan has left both residents and settlers unhappy, seeking government compensation for the upheaval.

The peninsula on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon has been disputed for decades.

In the 1980s Nigeria and Cameroon nearly went to war over the area, which is rich in oil and gas.
Cameroon asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to decide who rightfully owned the peninsula, home to about 200,000 people.

In 2002 the court ruled that it belonged to Cameroon, and the Nigerian government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo agreed to hand it over.

In 2006 it gave the northern part of the island to Cameroon, and promised to hand over the rest in two years time.

The Nigerian government told the people of Bakassi that if they wanted to be resettled in Nigeria, they could.

'New Bakassi'

They gave 1bn naira ($8.5m, £4.3m) to the Cross Rivers State government to resettle them.

The state created a place they called "New Bakassi", carved out of an existing local government area.

But now thousands of people have come, expecting a cash handout for moving from their homes.

And the original inhabitants of New Bakassi are bitter they are being displaced too.

More than 3,000 people fled their area of Omoto, southern Bakassi, in June.

"The Cameroonians came and informed us we had to leave the land, that they wanted to use it," said Etim Okon Ene, leader of the Bakassi people in a camp for displaced people in New Bakassi.

Militants, thought to be from the oil-rich Niger Delta, had attacked Cameroonian police in Bakassi, and the police retaliated.

"At one in the morning we heard gunfire, then we saw gunboats going left and right," said Mr Okon Ene.

"They said all our women should go out, and they arrested some of our youth. We've experienced fights in Bakassi since 1995, so we fled into the bush."

They scrambled into boats and fled to the town of Ikang.

Transit camp

The state government put them up in an old primary school.

About 10 people died in their boats on the five-hour trip, Mr Okon Ene said.

Five others died from illnesses in the first few weeks of being in the primary school.

The group was then moved to a "transit camp" close to New Bakassi.

"They say there is a place called New Bakassi, we don't know," said Mr Okon Ene.

"They say they will provide the buildings for us, but can you contemplate how many thousands of people we are, how can they provide them?"

"We only hear what they say but we don't see it."

The transit camp is cramped and uncomfortable with more than 30 to a room.

Many have given up on the idea of compensation or resettlement and gone back to Bakassi.

Others are hoping the government will pay them to go away.

"I was doing business in Bakassi, all my property was in Bakassi, I am homeless now," said Ledo Lebani, whose family is originally from Port Harcourt, further along the coast.

"What we really want is to go back to Port Harcourt, for the government to pay us compensation, for what Obasanjo promised to come true."

Contractors disappeared

But the state government says the money has been spent building houses in New Bakassi.

Privately, local government officials admit there was no building going on until two months ago.

Less than 200 buildings have gone up.

Most of the contractors paid by the state government have disappeared without trace.

The village where New Bakassi is being built is tense.

When the BBC visited a teenager was hurt in an accident involving a contractor's truck.

The village youth burned the truck and beat the driver until he was unconscious.

Just down the road Chief Effiong of Obuntong sits drinking palm wine in a shack overlooking the land cleared by the contractors building the houses for the Bakassi displaced.

"I don't do anything now. I need money, I need a house," he says.

As a traditional ruler, it was at his shrine that he could be consulted on spiritual matters.

Angry, hurt and humiliated, he has dark warnings for the people who destroyed it, saying the spirits will avenge its removal.

"I will commit suicide, but before I do, they will all die, even if they are a million of them."

(BBC)

Navy Claims Plot Uncovered

2008-08-12T14:31:00.002Z

The Nigerian Navy yesterday said it had uncovered a plot by a group of retired officers to destabilise the government from one of its barracks in Lagos. The naval authorities did not reveal details of the threat but said that the group, allegedly led by two retired naval officers in Lagos, had been going round some naval formations, particularly, the Nigerian Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos, to “poison” the minds of other naval personnel. This, it alleged, could lead to the breach of security in the country if not checked.

The Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Navy Captain Henry Babalola, who made the allegation, told THISDAY that it was that singular act that made the naval authorities in Abuja to order the ejection of all retired officers from barracks at the weekend. Babalola stated that contrary to rumours making the rounds that the ejection of some retired officers from the barracks was borne out of witchhunt, “those affected were trying to destabilise the system by making statements that were detrimental to the unity of the country”.

The naval spokesman said the allegation that the ejection of the officers was based on witch hunt of the affected people was sheer misinformation and an attempt to whip up “unnecessary sentiments” in favour of the affected people. Babalola said that the naval authorities were constrained to effect the ejection of the affected officers because they (the retired officers) had failed to yield to many entreaties from Abuja that they should vacate their respective apartments after the expiration of the permitted period for them to stay in the barracks.

According to him, rather than obey the directive, the affected officers started to engage themselves in “discussions” that could course a “breach of peace” in the barracks. “The retired officers had spent 19 months in the barracks, and the rule says that they could only stay for three months after retirement since all their benefits and entitlements had been fully paid,” he said. Babalola stated that the affected officers “are no longer under any authority and as such are security risks to serving officers and personnel”.

The affected officers had been causing disaffections in the barracks among serving officers and rank and file with their utterances and behaviours, he said.Justifying the action of Naval Headquarters, Babalola said that there are several serving officers without accommodation in the barracks “because the Federal Government’s policy on sale of houses affected them”. He maintained that the allegation that the Naval Headquarters are out to witch hunt the affected officers who are still nursing misgivings over their retirements does not arise.

There were no court injunctions restraining the Nigerian Navy from ejecting them, he said.Babalola urged Nigerians not to be misled by the affected officers and their cohorts in believing that they were being unduly treated. Some senior naval officers had been retired after the Naval Headquarters reportedly discovered that they were involved in illegal bunkering on the nation’s waterways.

(This Day)

Militants Attack Gas Pipeline

2008-08-12T14:25:00.002Z

A faction of Nigeria's most prominent militant group said on Monday it sabotaged a key natural gas pipeline in the restive Niger Delta, the latest in a series of attacks against Africa's biggest oil producer.

The Niger Delta Vigilante, an affiliate of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said its "diving unit" attacked a pipeline owned by state-oil firm NNPC that supplies natural gas to the Alakiri flowstation in Rivers state.

"This particular one was chosen to demonstrate our might of going below sea level to sabotage oil facilities," said the group's spokesman Tamunokuro Ebitari.

"This is one of our plans to cripple the economic base of Rivers state."

Officials with Nigeria's Joint Task Force, NNPC and Royal Dutch Shell could not confirm the attack, which the militant group said occurred early Monday morning.

Various armed groups operate under the franchise of MEND, whose campaign of violent sabotage has cut the OPEC member's oil output by a fifth since early 2006.

The militant group said the damaged pipeline provided natural gas supplies to the Port Harcourt refinery, which produces gasoline, diesel and other crude products.

But an NNPC official said the Port Harcourt refinery is only processing crude oil from the delta, the heart of Nigeria's oil sector.

If the militant group's claims are true, the NNPC official said the pipeline was likely supplying natural gas to the nearby LNG plant on Bonny Island.

A spokeswoman for the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company said she was not aware of any supply problems or pipeline disruptions to the plant.

(Reuters)

New Bird Flu Strain in Nigeria

2008-08-12T14:21:00.002Z

A strain of highly pathogenic bird flu previously not recorded in sub-Saharan Africa has been detected in Nigeria, the UN food agency said Tuesday.

Laboratory results from Nigeria and a Food and Agriculture reference laboratory in Italy show that the newly discovered virus strain is genetically different from the strains that circulated in Nigeria in 2006 and 2007, the Rome-based agency said in a statement.

"The detection of a new avian influenza virus strain in Africa raises serious concerns as it remains unknown how this strain has been introduced to the continent," warned Scott Newman of the FAO's Animal Health Service.

The new strain is similar to ones previously identified in Italy, Afghanistan and Iran last year, the FAO said.

"It seems to be unlikely that wild birds have carried the strain to Africa, since ... this year's southerly migration into Africa has not really started yet," Newman said, suggesting "other channels for virus introduction (including) international trade ... or illegal and unreported movement of poultry.

He warned that this increased the risk of avian influenza spreading to other countries in western Africa.

Since the avian influenza epidemic caused by the H5N1 strain started five years ago in Asia, the disease has affected more than 60 countries, most of which have succeeded to eliminate the virus from poultry, the FAO said.

In Nigeria, the virus was first confirmed in February 2006 and infected poultry in 25 states before being contained, but the west African economic powerhouse has recently reported two new highly pathogenic bird flu outbreaks in the northern states of Katsina and Kano.

(AFP)

What do you think?

2008-08-10T17:36:00.004Z

I am contemplating posting new updates on this blog. What do you think? Should I start this blog again or not? You input will decide.

Last Post

2007-08-04T14:36:00.000Z

It is with deep regret, that due to some significant lifestyle changes, I will no longer be publishing this blog. I will however, continue my Wordworks2001 blog which may be found at

http://wordworks2001.blogspot.com

Nigeria Security Update #1 020807

2007-08-02T14:27:00.000Z

Troops Deployed in Port Harcourt

Residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, woke up yesterday to discover an increased presence of troops in some parts of the city.

The deployment of troops followed the abduction of a Nigerian Production Superv-isor with Elf Petroleum Company Limited, Mr. Peter Agwuma, last night.

He was kidnapped by unknown men on his way from church around 8.30pm barely twelve hours after a Pakistani construction worker was kidnapped in Ogoniland, also in Rivers State.

The fear of more kidnappings has led to the increase in military presence.

The troops virtually took over the former Eleme Petrochemicals at Indorama in what was tagged a “routine” military exercise.

The Public Relations Officer of the Second Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt, Major Sagir Musa, said residents and visitors should not panic when they see the movements as it was meant not to scare anyone.

“The deployment of troops to Eleme Petrochemical Company is a normal and routine exercise by the Joint Task Force to ensure safety of lives and properties of the company and surrounding inhabitants. People should not panic, it is a conscious and continuous effort aimed at providing an enabling environment for law abiding citizens to carry out their lawful business in a secured and peaceful environment in Rivers state,” he explained.

Agwuma was allegedly picked at Iwofe road area by Agip Road. Since he was picked, nothing has been heard of him.

Confirming the story, the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu said “there is no news at all on the incident since he was taken away. Nobody or group has claimed responsibility”.

Also responding to inquiries, the Head of Corporate Affairs of Elf in Nigeria, Mr. Fred Ohwawha confirmed that their staff was kidnapped but that they do not know those behind it.

“We do not know the motive of the people who kidnapped him and we do not want to speculate. We are trying to do our best. We have been in touch with the family and the police on the matter,” he said.

Delta Security Summit Held

FOUR Niger Delta governors yesterday joined a Federal Government team at a meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, where restiveness among Nigerian oil-bearing communities and the need to secure the Gulf of Guinea topped the agenda.
The forum, tagged: "The Gulf of Guinea Energy Security Strategy (GGESS)," was also attended by representatives of the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (UK).

The Federal Government team was headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe.

The Governors are Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Celestine Omehia (Rivers), Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) and Chief Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa).

In attendance were the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Richard Gozney; Managing Director of Shell and Chairman, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Basil Omiyi; as well as his ExxonMobil and Total counterparts.

Also present were the Deputy Managing Director of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Mr. Akin Aruwajoye, and the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Timi Alaibe.

Kingibe, at the meeting, disclosed the heavy toll of restiveness in the region on the country and put Nigeria's revenue losses from incessant disruption of crude oil production at about N5 billion ($40 million) daily.

Kingibe said that the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration had held a series of direct dialogues with all the stakeholders in the region and would continue to reassure the people of his administration's willingness to address their problems.

"There is presently a shut-in of 500,000 barrels of oil per day which translates to a revenue loss in the region of $40 million per day," Kingibe said.

He noted other impacts to include major cost escalations ranging between 30 and 40 per cent across some key upstream projects, as contractors now factor in their contract bids, "a Niger Delta Premium", which covers community expectations, kidnaps, and higher insurance premium, among others.

He said that the government understands clearly the need to establish normalcy and bring development to the region and adopt sustainable initiative by engaging the militants in economic empowerment initiative through the GGESS.

Kingibe added that the government is also ensuring law and order in the region.

"Of all these factors, re-establishment of law and order remains the basis on which other strategies can be effectively pursued and achieved," he said.

Kingibe said that the new government had already begun a revitalization programme for the Joint Task Force to make it more efficient and effective.

"This revitalized Task Force will be charged with the responsibility of preventing sabotage to oil and gas pipelines, securing oil and gas facilities, installation of onshore and offshore facilities, curbing oil theft and (bunkering), preventing kidnappings and hostage-taking," he said.

He disclosed that prevention and interception of illegal cross-border oil cartel as well as locating and neutralizing local interest groups that support arms trafficking and other illicit activities in the oil business would also be the focus of the task force.

He said: "The Task Force shall also ensure that the principles of Extractive Industry Transparent Initiative (EITI) take a stronger foothold in business undertaking of the industry in Nigeria."

Presidential envoy on GGESS, Mr. Funso Kupolokun, spoke at the meeting, which was the seventh in the series. He stressed that the activities of GGESS were strategies to address the security and development needs in the Niger Delta region.

Kupolokun, who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said with all the stakeholders, development agencies and the international communities coming together under the umbrella of GGESS, issues on the Niger Delta will soon be a thing of the past. He added that President Yar'Adua has demonstrated his commitment to the ideals of the group.

Kupolokun noted that the group witnessed rapid growth last year following the inclusion of Canada, France, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland as its members.

"This expansion is a reflection of the continued focus of the group on its primary objective of ensuring that the development of the Niger Delta region in an atmosphere of peace and stability remains paramount," he said.

Lagos Under Siege of "One Chance" (This Day)

THIS undoubtedly should rank as the rave of the moment in the crime world. Known only by its street name - One Chance, it is almost entirely unique to the Lagos metropolis.

In fact, some have argued that it was originally exported to other parts of the country by Lagos. As it is, the one chance menace has overtaken the 'agberos' or social miscreants in terms of notoriety in Lagos.

THIS undoubtedly should rank as the rave of the moment in the crime world. Known only by its street name - One Chance, it is almost entirely unique to the Lagos metropolis.

Once upon a time, the nation's commercial capital used to be a paradise of some sorts, where residents and indigenes would not only sleep with their two eyes shut and doors and windows to their apartments wide open, they could also literarily jump into any commercial bus or car for that matter, with no second thoughts.

Today, only a new comer to the city can afford to take that risk. Today, also the phrase 'shine your eyes' is more than a mantra for the average resident, it is also the revered code of conduct, for those who do not want to risk their material belongings, not to talk of their lives.

From the Ojota end of the Ikorodu road to their favoured Oshodi-Apapa expressway with its Airport road axis: And from the Okokomaiko end of the Badagry expressway, the tales of woe and grief recounted by victims have become like a symphony in the Lagos air, and a sad one at that too.

Aptly put, one in every 50 Lagosian has fallen victim to this unnerving experience called 'One Chance' that has become a fashion accessory for criminals who for the sheer love of the game or for their favourite excuse of unemployment lay siege to commuters at dusk posing as passengers and dispossessing them of their belongings midway into their journey.

The harrowing experience often leaves some victims speechless from shock either at having a gun pointed at your face or being hurled out of a moving vehicle.

While some have been extremely 'lucky' to merely part with just their material belongings, others have been maimed from injuries sustained on impact with the hard tarred road when unceremoniously pushed out of a vehicle moving at nearly 100 miles per hour!

Still for others, their whereabouts is still a thing of mystery fit to be resolved only by the Scotland Yard, as the Nigerian police are up to their neek deep in the riddle as to why Lagos often accounts for a huge number of missing person cases.

Through the entire duration of their operation, hardly is any gunshot fired. In fact, no single shot is fired, but the sight of a gun in the hands of people who look like they are from another planet and not the Nigerians, your compatriots, you used to know, is enough to dissuade any intended resistance.

And so the story goes that at the end, you and the other hapless victims so unfortunate as to board that commercial bus that fateful evening, will end up losing hard-earned property.

And the high number of people who daily troop to the customer care offices of the telecommunications companies seeking to recover their lines is testimony to an equally high increase in the activities of the 'One Chance stakeholders' in the country.

Their choice vehicle is the 14-seater Volkwagen Vanagon,' popularly called the 'danfo', not that other brands are forbidden. Even the cars, 'Coaster', the 'Civilian' brands of Mass transit buses are no exception as they operate with ease in any of these. Whether hijacked or owned by them is never a problem in carrying out their activities on unsuspecting commuters.

In all these, however, the Mercedes Benz 911, or 1414 brands, popularly called the 'molue' in commuter parlance seems to be the exception for the One Chance operatives, probably because of the high risk involved in hijacking and managing the crowd of nearly 100 passengers that the metal contraption conveys at any given time.

Ironically, throughout the 80's and almost the entire 90's, the phenomenon that has evolved and is nicknamed One Chance was virtually unheard of.

According to many residents, this trend is relatively new to the city. For them, when it first surfaced at the tail end of the 90's they had watched in hope that it would one day go away, but all to no avail, instead, the trend has grown in leaps and bounds, and metamorphosed in modus operandi to the extent that criminal in other state capitals have replicated one form or the other of the same One Chance menace, even though, it might not exactly be the same.

Today, in the metropolis, what used to be strictly a nocturnal operation is done right in broad day light and even in full view of passersby and the police!

Picture this Hollywood-like scenario: Have you ever boarded a commercial bus or car and someone seated beside or in front of you, pulls out a knife or gun at you and orders you to give up your possessions? And while the vehicle is still in motion, he along with his other fake passengers proceeds to bundle you out of the vehicle and onto the hard and rough tarred or 'un-tarred' (depending on the location) road?

That is the classic scenario in any 'One Chance' playout. The scenes could be modified, adapted to any particular setting, but the tale of misery is the same by all victims.

Sampling the various opinions of Lagos residents on the menace posed by the criminals whose stock in trade is 'One Chance', there are two schools of thoughts as to how this crime not only evolved but why it has also waxed strong.

For Funke Adetutu, a journalist, the matter of One Chance was a time bomb waiting to explode in the face of the city which has no discernable government-run mass transit system.

"Look, government does not anymore have buses on the road or even any other efficient mass transit system. It is individuals who put their cars or buses on the roads. As it is, what these people choose to do with their vehicles is entirely their business. It is only the masses who suffer in the end," said Adetutu.

Indeed, it appears that since the collapse of the Lateef Jakande metro-line initiative on mass transportation for Lagos residents, private individuals have run the scheme.

Nigeria Security Update #1 010807

2007-08-01T13:06:00.000Z

Oil Workers Face Increasing Security Problems (LRP)

Kidnappings, crimes, political upheaval, piracy and labor-relations disruptions are some of the security issues facing expatriates in Nigeria. The situation is exacerbating the shortage of trained personnel and offering HR leaders and security companies problems in protecting workers.

By Anne Freedman

The deteriorating security situation in Nigeria is prompting some oil and gas companies to think twice about continuing operations in the country.

"Nigeria is just notorious for a lot of bad stuff," says William Sheridan, senior director of global human resource services for the National Foreign Trade Council in New York. "It's been going on for a period of time."

According to strategypage.com, an online military-affairs research and reporting organization, nearly 150 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped this year, as of June, yielding "at least $100,000 per captive in ransom."

The problem has become so common, according to the report, that negotiations "now usually take days instead of weeks."

The "flow of ransom money has attracted more kidnappers, and attacks on foreigners working at non-oil-company firms," according to strategypage.com

Kevin Rosser, oil and gas practice leader in the London headquarters of Control Risks Group, a security and risk consultancy, says the security issues are exacerbating the "real shortage of technical personnel" needed by oil companies in the exploration and production business as well as oil-services companies that focus on work such as drilling or construction.

"The security problems come from a number of different sources. You have militant groups. You have organized criminal groups. You have communities who have -- may have -- some involvement. Some of these overlap," he says.

The difficulty of managing sometimes disruptive labor unions adds another level of complexity, he says, as does increasing piracy affecting offshore locations, which once were "reasonably insulated" from security problems.

"Kidnapping may be a militant phenomenon insofar as it has a political language and a criminal one insofar as the people behind it are looking for a ransom," Rosser says, adding that the situation in the country has been deteriorating for the past two to three years.

The combination of criminality and political radicalization has generated "chronic insecurity verging on an unmanageable security problem," he says.

Last year, the country saw the highest number of kidnappings on record -- about 27 incidents. This year, he says, that number was passed in the first quarter. Rosser says he hasn't seen the strategypage.com report, which puts the number of kidnappings at 150.

The HR implications of such a situation, he says, are that companies need to determine "their duty of care toward staff who they want to send into high-risk environments and what that means in practice from a security-management program."

It means HR must train workers to identify risks and "come up with a program for managing them effectively," Rosser says.

Workers need to know how to conduct themselves in a hostile environment, what to do if they hear gunfire, if they are in a traffic accident, if they are kidnapped, he says.

Sheridan notes the security risks "certainly inhibit" companies in their in-country activities "and it's going to inhibit people from taking the assignment."

While the oil industry is providing a great deal of gross national revenue to the government, he says, "the money doesn't tend to get very far. It doesn't benefit the community."

Most of the security problems are in the Niger Delta, an area filled with swamps and jungle, where the oil is located and where the government, Rosser says, has never fulfilled its promises to develop the region.

He says some companies have shut production sites or "mothballed" operations. "About 20 percent of Nigeria's total productive capacity is simply unavailable because certain producing areas are off limits right now," he says.

To recruit and retain workers, some companies are offering up to 1.8 times the normal salaries, he says.

Whether families of workers remain in the country depends on the area, he says. In an area such as Port Harcourt, which is in the delta and serves as headquarters for many oil companies, companies generally prefer that families do not accompany workers. In early July, a 3-year-old British girl, who was kidnapped on her way to school, was released after being held for four days.

In Lagos, the commercial capital -- where there are security issues but not at the same level as in the delta -- it's a little different, Rosser says. "I think the preference increasingly is not to have dependents."

Other than Iraq -- which now has very few foreign oil workers as the national oil company is handling the work -- Nigeria offers the highest risk to oil and gas expats.

Other countries with security risks, but nowhere in the same league, he says, include Colombia, Algeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

"The Niger delta," says Bill Daly, senior vice president and head of the New York office of Control Risks, "I would say, is one of the most risky areas to do business in these days."

But, he notes, "there's a tremendous amount of interest in the area because of the resources in the area."

Nigerian Oil Worker Seized (The Hindi)

A Nigerian oil worker was seized in the country's restive southern region, a colleague said on Wednesday.

Gunmen seized the employee of Elf, a subsidiary of French firm Total, from outside his church on Tuesday evening in the oil city of Port Harcourt, the colleague said who requested anonymity due to company restrictions on speaking to the media.

Kidnapping rings have seized over 150 foreigners this year. Victims are not usually hurt, and released after the payment of a cash ransom.

The practice began when disaffected communities began to seize foreign oil workers to protest unemployment or pollution, but gradually more organized militant groups demanding more political rights for their impoverished region began to carry out attacks.

Police say most of the current spate of kidnappings are carried out by criminal gangs only interested in cash. Recently, they have also begun to seek rich Nigerians as targets.

The police were not immediately available for comment on the latest kidnapping.

The attacks, and a string of bombings, have cut production in Africa's largest oil producer by around a quarter.

Bizarre Stories from the Niger Delta (This Day)

It is not funny at all when a man tells kidnappers that they can hold on to his mother as he could not afford the ransom demanded. Yet that is precisely what the Speaker of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu, has done. He simply asked the hostage-takers holding her 70-year old mother to keep her, as he has no N50 million to give them.

In a manner that proves that the descent into anarchy in the Niger Delta has assumed a bizarre proportion, the septuagenarian was kidnapped last Tuesday. This is a woman who goes by the sobriquet, "Mama Yenagoa". What point on earth would the kidnappers want to make by visiting the poor woman with so much trauma? In response to the outrage expressed by the public to this criminal act, the kidnappers have demanded a N50 million ransom from her son.

The son is certainly not alone in protesting this crime. The other members of the House of Assembly have embarked on hunger strike to demonstrate their disgust at the phenomenon of hostage taking in the troubled region. On Monday, they all wore black suits to draw national and international attention to this heinous practice. In solidarity with the embattled speaker, the House has adjourned sittings for a week. Informed sources have explained the latest act as a fall-out of local politics. However, nothing can justify this act of brigandage. It cannot be rationalised on any ground. Whatever the motivation, it is as criminal as the kidnapping of babies, toddlers, oil workers and innocent expatriates that some other gangs perpetrated. At one time the victim was a girl, whose father is British and mother, Nigerian. She was taken on her way to school. Few days later it was a son of a chief. In some instances lives were lost in the efforts to rescue hostages.

t began as kidnapping of expatriate oil-workers; now fellow citizens of Niger Delta origin are becoming victims regardless of age and circumstance. Hostage taking has become a fast-growing industry with different criminal groups competing for turf in the region. The violence and other criminal activities are taking enormous socio-economic tolls. In a region in which some reports put the unemployment rate as being above the national average, companies are either scaling down activities or closing shops. It is no only the activities of oil companies that are affected. The economy of the already impoverished region is in serious jeopardy.

That is why while all decent people should join in calling for the release of Madam Hansel Seibarugu, this incident should be seen by the federal government as a chilling reminder that the Niger Delta debacle should be resolved as quickly as possible. This is more so that the federal government is reportedly attempting a fresh look at the problem.

Significantly, President Umaru Yar'Adua listed Niger Delta, as an issue of priority is his inaugural address on May 29. The problem is also an item in his seven-point agenda on which his campaign was hinged. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who incidentally is from the area, is reportedly given the special assignment of closely engaging the forces at play in the crisis. Soon after inauguration, the federal government had scheduled a summit on the Niger Delta.

The summit had to be rescheduled for a thorough preparation. It is good enough that the summit would not be taking place in a vacuum of ideas. There are documents that could illuminate serious discussions of the problem. Some of these documents arose from sober studies of the developmental and security dimensions of the Niger Delta condition. Attention should, therefore, be continuously drawn to these reports begging for action.

First is the Master Plan "facilitated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in partnership with state governments, Local Government Areas (LGAs), oil companies civil society and communities" in the region? The document could as well be termed the Niger Delta Manifesto of Development. The process of putting together the report has been essentially inclusive of the views of the various interests in the region. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who received the report, acknowledged that much. According to him: "What we have is not an NDDC plan, but a people's plan, one that one that all can claim ownership. The collective vision of the stakeholders captured in this Master Plan is the accelerated development of this hitherto turbulent and underdeveloped region into Africa's most peaceful, most prosperous and most pleasant region."

The summit may have to deliberate on how the implementation of the plan has not been funded to achieve optimal objectives. The Master Plan and the agency saddled with the task of its implementation cannot, of course, be immune from the dynamics of the politics of the region within context of the crisis of the Nigerian distorted federalism.

The second document that is worth referring to be the NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT prepared last year by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report recommends a seven-point action plan, described as a "new development paradigm".

The elements of this plan are promotion of " peace as the foundation for development"; making "local governance effective and responsive to the needs of the people"; improvement and diversification of the economy; promotion of " social inclusion and improved access to social services"; promotion of environmental sustainability to preserve the means of people's sustainable livelihood"; taking "an integrated approach to HIV&AIDS"; and building "sustainable partnerships for the advancement of human development".

These recommendations arose from the question posed by the study: "The delta's human development dilemma raises the question of why abundant human and natural resources have had so little impact on poverty.

There is also the report of the committee headed by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia, on the security situation in oil -communities. This report was prepared in 2002 and submitted to the government. What was remarkable about the report is that it was signed by all the then incumbent service chiefs, heads of all security agencies, chief executives of all the companies operating in the upstream sector of the oil industry and secretaries to the governments of the oil-producing states. The committee recommended short term, medium term and long-term solutions to the problem. It is also instructive that this committee, which included Generals and security chiefs, reasoned that the there is no military solution to the problem. According to the committee, the answer to the crushing poverty of the region is development. And the method to resolve the conflict should be political. Nothing was done about that report in the lifetime of the administration that set up the committee and received the report. The report only became a subject of attention last year following the upsurge in hostage taking. Those who are preparing for the summit should study this report as a working document.

The three reports cited above are, of course, just a few among existing serious studies and suggestions on how to resolve the Niger Delta debacle. What is common to them all is the theme that what we are witnessing in the region is primarily a crisis of underdevelopment. This has been exacerbated by an irresponsible form of exploitation of a natural resource and gross inequities in the distribution of the wealth. The security and criminal issues are only derivatives of the development question

The Yar'Adua administration has to move fast to rein in the anarchy that is enveloping the region. It is good to be methodical in going about it and taking a holistic view of the issues as the administration is reportedly doing. However, this government does not have all the time to restore normalcy in the region. Before more damage is done, the government should come up with its own workable approach to check those who have turned hostage taking, oil bunkering, violent cultist activities and other crimes into a burgeoning industry in the region. The first thing to do is to isolate the criminals from the legitimate struggle of the people of the region for justice and equity. The most potent weapon the government could employ is embarking on a massive anti-poverty programme. The summit will be meaningful if it could come up with such a programme achievable within a time frame. It would be easier for government to confront the criminals if the issues of development are seen to be tackled seriously.

It is also important that those groups legitimately agitating in the region should join in the efforts to isolate the criminals who are defaming the struggle of the people of Niger Delta. For instance, it was salutary that militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF) have openly condemned some of the criminal activities. They even issued ultimatums to the criminals in some instances. It will also be productive if the militants could also adopt a more political approach in their struggle. The way they respond to the consultations for the summit will show how politically transformed they could possibly be in the coming years. If generals say that the government cannot solve the problems militarily, the militants too should be told that they wouldn't achieve their objectives employing violent tactics.

Death Toll Increases in Warri (Vanguard)

The death toll keeps increasing with each passing day. Although about 17 persons have been confirmed dead, the lives of many others are hanging on the cliff as a result of severe burns from kerosine explosions which rocked several parts of Warri, the oil-rich city in Delta State.

Explosions from killer kerosine have become a recurring decimal in the country and each time such incidents occur, blames are traded between the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) on the one hand and marketers on the other hand as to the source of the adulterated product.

This time, DPR sources explained that the killer kerosine might have been scooped from a vandalised pipeline. The source claimed that what people thought was kerosine is actually condensate, a lighter variant of crude oil but which looks very much like kerosine.

The disastrous incident which occurred in Warri is already having negative effects on kerosine dealers in Lagos. Palpable fears have gripped residents of Lagos that the killer product may find its way into the city. Some apprehensive residents of the city said they would rather queue at petrol filling stations to buy their household kerosine than buy from open tanks whose sources they cannot guaranteed.

Royal fathers visit victims

Some royal fathers in Delta State, led by the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, Major-General Felix Mujakperuo (rtd), yesterday, visited the victims of the kerosine blasts on admission at the Central Hospital, Warri on condolence visit.

The royal fathers, including the Obi of Issele-Uku, the Ughelli monarch and an Ijaw traditional ruler donated N100,000 to the victims to augment their medical treatment.

They asked those adulterating kerosine to stop the dangerous practice and commended the state government for its intervention.

Chief Consultant-Surgeon in the hospital, Dr. Peter Oside, conducted the royal fathers round the wards to see the victims.

Nigeria Security Update #1 310707

2007-07-31T18:25:00.000Z

Pakistani Construction Manager Kidnapped (VOA)

Seven gunmen abducted a Pakistani construction manager in southern Nigeria on Tuesday and demanded a ransom, a local rights activist said citing sources at the man's company and witnesses.

The attack takes to at least 12 the number of foreigners being held hostage by armed groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where crime and militancy have surged since early 2006.

The gunmen, dressed in red, arrived by boat at a road construction site run by Italian firm Gitto near Bodo community in the Ogoni area of Rivers state, said Patrick Naagbanton, coordinator of the local Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development.

Bodo has been plagued by deadly fights between two rival "cults" or youth gangs and the gunmen's red clothes suggested they may be members of Deebam, one of the cults.

"They held everyone at gunpoint before seizing the Pakistani manager and taking him away by boat," Naagbanton said by telephone from Rivers.

The abducted man was in charge of dredging for Gitto's road project, which is financed by the federal government. The road will cross several creeks and rivers.

Contacts at Gitto said the kidnappers called demanding a ransom but they did not disclose the amount, Naagbanton said.

Militants who criticised the neglect of the impoverished delta and demanded local control over oil revenues launched a violent campaign against the oil industry in early 2006.

They have forced the closure of several oilfields and oil output from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter, is down by about a fifth.

But violence has spiralled out of control with numerous criminal gangs using the militancy as a cover to carry out abductions for ransom and armed robberies.

Over 200 expatriates have been kidnapped since the start of last year and almost all have been freed in exchange for money.

Chronology of Recent Abductions

Below is a chronology of some major attacks and kidnappings involving the Nigerian oil industry since President Umaru Yar'Adua was sworn in on May 29.

June 3 - Gunmen kidnap six staff of United Company RUSAL, the Russian aluminium giant, in Ikot Abasi in the southeast. The men were working at the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria.

June 15 - Gunmen kidnap two Lebanese men, working for Italian firm Stabilini, near Ogara in Delta state.
June 16 - Militants release 10 Indian hostages held since June 1. The hostages included at least three senior executives of Indonesian petrochemical company Indorama.
June 23 - Four hostages, from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Pakistan, employed by oil services giant Schlumberger are released unharmed. The men were abducted on June 1 from Port Harcourt.
June 25 - Two Indian construction workers, kidnapped near Sapele in Delta State on June 15, are freed.
July 4 - Armed men attack a Shell facility at Soku and abduct five expatriates, two from New Zealand, one Australian, one Venezuelan and one from Lebanon. They are released on July 11.
July 5 - A 3-year-old British child, Margaret Hill, is abducted in Port Harcourt. She is released on July 8.
July 7 - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell said one of its teams had been attacked in Rivers state in the delta and two Nigerian workers taken hostage. The Nigerians are released on July 11.
July 8 - A Briton was among two foreign workers kidnapped from a production barge near Calabar in Cross River state.
July 12 - Francis Samuel Amadi, the 3-year-old son of a traditional ruler in the community of Iriebe, is kidnapped near Port Harcourt. He is released the next day.
July 31 - A Pakaistani man, a manager in charge of dredging on a construction site run by Italian firm Gitto, is kidnapped near Bodo community in the Ogoni area of Rivers state.

Predicted Peace May Make Oil Flow Again (Reuters)

Nigeria's new government and militant groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta are moving towards talks that could restore lost output from the world's eighth-largest oil exporter.

An 18-month campaign of guerrilla attacks on Western oil facilities has prompted thousands of foreigners to leave Africa's top producer, reduced output by a fifth and helped oil prices rise to record highs.

But since taking office two months ago, President Umaru Yar'Adua has moved swiftly to engage the militants. He has met two of their demands by freeing two jailed leaders of the Ijaw ethnic group, the most populous in the Niger Delta.

In response, 25 armed groups have joined into a united front for talks with the government. The two sides are now working on preconditions for formal talks to address militant demands for more regional control over the delta's oil.

"I am very optimistic. The militias are ready to cease fire and give negotiations a chance," said Dimieari Von Kemedi, an Ijaw activist involved in the talks.

A truce called by several armed groups has held since Yar'Adua's inauguration on May 29. However, a crime wave continues to sweep the delta's largest city of Port Harcourt, posing a threat to the peace drive, he added.

Armed groups protesting against neglect and poverty in the vast wetlands region have stepped up violence against oil workers and industry facilities since the 1990s.

But the line between militancy and crime is blurred and dozens of criminal gangs use militant rhetoric as a cover to kidnap foreigners for ransom or steal oil from pipelines.

BLIP?

Security consultants working for international oil companies are split over the significance of the peace moves. Some see them as a temporary respite in a long-term decline in the vast region of swamps and mangrove-lined creeks.

"Though violence has eased in the last few weeks, the perception of companies is still negative," said one security consultant working for Western multinationals.

"Companies see a long-term deterioration in security. It may not be linear, but each cycle of violence is worse than before," added the consultant, who is not allowed to talk to the media.

There are still good reasons to be worried.

One powerful militant who leads a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has so far refused to take part. His fighters have been responsible for some of the fiercest attacks over the past 18 months.

"The government is attempting to resolve the unrest in the delta through selective appeasement. This will secure a cease fire but how long this 'peace' will last, I cannot tell," said the leader, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo, in an e-mail.

"They will attempt to stall and pacify dissenting voices financially. Let's watch and see where things go. We will attack without further warning if there is a need to," he said, adding that he saw no prospect of better use of resources in the delta.

Despite these concerns, some projects and investments that had been on hold because of a surge in attacks in the first half of the year are now going ahead.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has moved some workers back to its western delta oilfields, where 500,000 barrels per day has been shut since they were evacuated in February 2006.

It has resumed pumping 36,000 barrels per day from one oilfield and two tankers are expected to load from the Forcados terminal in August, the first shipments in 18 months.

U.S. oil giant Chevron has lifted a ban imposed in May on non-essential staff in offshore operations, industry sources say. And construction workers have begun setting up work sites to start building a new $1.8 billion highway across the delta, which had previously been frozen by security concerns.

Nigerian Army Retires 40 Top Officers (AP)

The Nigerian Defense Ministry has asked 40 top army officials to retire, a Nigerian defense spokesman said on Tuesday, two months after the country swore in a new president.

"There's no big deal about it. It's a continuous process," said Col. Mohammed Yusuf, who said the process was routine.

He said that under new Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, the armed forces would be sticking strictly to rules that said members must retire at the age of 60, or after 35 years of service.

"They will now try to follow the process very properly, like it did not happen before. Once it is time, there is nothing you can do," he said.

Yusuf said the retirements had no political motive.

"There is nothing like mass retirement," he said, pointing out that classes of officers often graduate over 100 at a time.

He refused, citing national security concerns, to say how many generals were in the Nigerian armed forces or how many generals were among the 40 top officers being retired.

Nigeria has undergone several tumultuous decades of military rule and seven coups since wresting independence from Britain in 1960, but last April's elections that marked the country's first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power.

The elections were widely condemned as rigged by domestic and international observers, but some Nigerians were simply grateful that there was a peaceful transfer of power at all. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had also previously been a military ruler of the country in 1975. He returned to power in 1999 on the back of a popular vote and also proceeded to retire a number of generals shortly afterward.

Most Nigerians do not believe that a coup is currently likely.

Before he promoted current President Yar'Adua as his protege, several of Obasanjo's supporters tried to force through a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to run for a third term.

Although the country receives tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues annually and is rated as one of the most corrupt in the world by Berlin-based Transparency International.

Bank Manager, 3 More Killed By Armed Robbers in Lagos (Daily Champion)

ONITSHA branch manager of a second generation bank (name withheld), Nnamdi Obi and two policemen were killed by yet-to-be identified gunmen in separate incidents Sunday in Onitsha and Enugu, respectively.

Similarly, armed robbers yesterday stormed the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, (MMIA), Lagos, leaving an unidentified man dead, and several others wounded after their operation.

Daily Champion gathered that Obi who hailed from Nawfia in Njikoka local government area of Anambra State, was shot dead inside his car near the abattoir in Onitsha where he had accompanied his wife to.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Anambra command, Mr Felix Agbo, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) confirmed the killing.

He told our correspondent on telephone that investigation was on-going to unmask the killers.

Other gang of armed robbers Sunday night shot and killed two policemen in what appeared to be a planned attack on a police check point along Ogui Road, Enugu and about a 100metres from the police station on the same road.

The hoodlums also snatched the service rifles of the slain cops after, as eyewitnesses recounted, hurling abuse on and kicking their corpses.

The police check point had been mounted near two popular fast food shops and restaurants that are the favourite haunts of Enugu's rich and famous and had been targets of armed robbery attacks in the past.

The permanent police presence there had helped to keep the hoodlums at bay. The weekend's attack on the check point is widely viewed as an act of vengeance by the criminals against the men who had prevented them from operating freely in the area.

Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred at about 8.30 pm when the robbers who were travelling in a flashy car whose make could not be ascertained suddenly opened fire on the unsuspecting policemen as they approached their checkpoint. The hoodlums were said to have climbed down from their cars and after molesting the corpses of the cops, took their service firearms.

"It all happened in a flash, we suddenly heard gunshots and the next thing we saw were some people climbing down from a car and rushing at the policemen who were already lying on the ground. They kicked at the bodies and shouted insults at them before taking their guns and escaping in the car", said one witness, who pleaded anonymity.

Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Mike Abattam, who confirmed the incident, said the bodies of the two dead cops had been recovered, adding that a massive man-hunt for the hoodlums had commenced.

"We have alerted all units to hunt down those hoodlums and I can assure you, we will get them in no distant time. They cannot escape", he said.

The hoodlums are also suspected to have been behind several robbery incidents in different parts of the city on Sunday night shortly after the attack on the policemen.

It also came barely a week after robbers killed a policeman and wounded another in a failed attempt to rob a bank at Nsukka.

Daily Champion learnt that the robbers, who started their operation at about 2am, tied up the six security operatives on duty and the three plain clothed caps seizing the gun of one of the victims.

According to some of the workers the alleged mad man was also shot dead on the spot. It is not the bureau de change office when he accosted the armed robbers.

What the rampaging hoodlums carted away, extensive damage to most of the offices and the vehicles that were parked there.

The chairman of the bureau de change, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, who spoke with Daily Champion confirmed the incident and stated that there have been strict orders to everyone at the bureau de change not to keep money overnight.

"We have a very strict order that nobody should keep his money overnight in the compound, so that order has been very helpful; because nobody kept money and the robbers did not find any money in the safe that were forced open," he said.

According to him, three safes opened and almost all the offices in the bureau de change were broken into by the bandits who went on a rampage riddling bullets on vehicles and windows when they found nothing to steal.

Airport Command police authority are yet to comment on the incident not reacted to it.

It is recalled that a similar incident took place early in January at the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) where over N120 million was carted away and the suspects not been captured.

Unlike Sunday afternoon's robbery in Isolo, Lagos where the robbers allegedly trailed the bullion vans, yesterday's robbery in Lagos witnessed the raiding of some bureau de change offices at MMIA.

A police officer's rifle was allegedly snatched during the operation.

Nigeria Security Update #2 300707

2007-07-30T22:40:00.000Z

N 50 Million asked for in Ransom of Speaker's Mother (Daily Champion)

UNIDENTIFIED militants, who kidnapped 70- year-old Mrs Hansel Seibaragu, mother of Bayelsa State House of Assembly Speaker are reportedly demanding N50 million to free their hostage.

This is as the Speaker, Hon. Werinipre Seibaragu returned, weekend, from South Africa to join forces with the state government officials to effect the release of his mother.

A competent source told Daily Champion yesterday that the kidnappers wanted N50 million as ransom for the release of Mrs Seibaragu.

Special Assistant on Media to Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr Jonah Okah, however, said he was not aware of the N50 million ransom but confirmed that negotiations were on to release the old woman.

Speaking on the travails of his mother, the lawmaker appealed to the kidnappers to release his mother on humanitarian ground.

While expressing sadness over the incident, Mr. Seibaragu said that the Nigerian security operatives were capable of effecting the release of his mother.

He described his mother as caring, innocent and loving, who does not deserve the current travails, while pledging his commitment to the development of the state.

Okah also expressed hope that Hansel would be released on humanitarian grounds.

"We are pleading with the boys to have the fear of God and release the old woman. The Bible teaches us to be respectful to the old. They should release her quickly," Okah told Daily Champion on phone yesterday from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

On the return of his boss to Nigeria, he said "yes, my boss is back. In fact, she (Hansel) would soon be released. You know the speaker is back, he cannot afford to allow the old woman, to remain in that condition."

Daily Champion recalls that the Bayelsa State speaker who had travelled to South Africa to attend a Commonwealth Parliamentary conference along with some principal officers of the House was compelled to cut short his trip when the news of his mother's abduction reached him.

Madam Hansel was kidnapped last Tuesday (July 24) at Akaibiri in Ekpetiama, old Yenagoa local government area, by yet to be identified militants just as her whereabouts is still unknown. She has already spent five days with her captors.

Two Policemen Gunned Down in Lagos (Daily Champion)

Armed robbers yesterday killed two policemen at Oke-Afa, Isolo and carted away about N700,000.

The dead policemen were said to have accompanied a bullion van belonging to a second generation bank to collect money realized from weekend sales from a fast food eatery, Mr. Biggs at Jakande estate, Isolo, Lagos. They were said to be on their way back to Allen Avenue, Ikeja branch of the bank when they met their untimely death. The policemen whose names could not be ascertained as at press time were attached to Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Centre police station, Ikeja.

According to reliable police sources, the robbers, who operated with a Mercedez Benz jeep were said to have trailed the bullion van and escort vehicle from Jakande estate near Isolo. The bandits eventually overtook the convoy of the van after descending Oke-Afa bridge, a boundary between Isolo and Ejigbo, blocked them with the jeep, and shot dead the policemen before carting away the safe containing the money.

Meanwhile, an eye witness, who pleaded anonymity, told Daily Champion that the owner of the jeep was earlier shot dead before the robbers snatched his vehicle.

A curious angle to the robbery, a police source told Daily Champion, was that the three policemen in the escort van led by a police sergeant could not give account of how the robbers made away with the safe containing the money.

Having succeeded unchallenged, the robbers were said to have shot their way through Okota Road to safety. They were also said to have thrown canisters of tear gas at passers-by who scampered for safety on hearing the gunshots from the rampaging robbers.

On reaching Isolo Divisional Police Headquarters, the robbers were said have shot into the station apparently to dare them.

The incident was said to have caused temporary traffic jam in the area as some motorists abandoned their vehicles on roads. Eye witness account said pedestrians were seen raising their hands as they were searched by policemen.

However, when Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr. Olubode Ojajuni was contacted on phone for confirmation, he said he was yet to be briefed on the incident by the Divisional Police Officer of Isolo Divisional Police Headquarters. Meanwhile, police have accused the affected bank of nonchalance in taking the deceased cops to the mortuary. A policeman at Isolo who spoke under anonymity informed Daily Champion that the body of the late officers were left lying in the sun for about five hours due to non-release of money by the bank to pay for mortuary expenses. But the corporate affairs manager of the bank debunked the allegation, saying the deceased were immediately taken to the mortuary after the bank received information of the incident.

Nigeria Security Update #1 300707

2007-07-30T14:50:00.000Z

Armed Robbery Suspects Gunned Down (The Tide)

The police in Rivers State have killed three suspected armed robbers during an exchange of fire along Rumuigbo Road, old GRA, Port Harcourt.

The men of the underworld met their waterloo when the police getting information that a gang of armed robbers are operating in the area and they immediately swoop into action.

A source said that as the police Anti-crime Patrol team was mobilized to the scene, the robbers on sighting them, opened fire and in the process exchange of fire ensued.

It was learnt that during the exchange of fire, the three armed robber suspects were gunned down and others took to their heels and escaped.

The source further said the police have intensified efforts to track down the fleeing suspects and bring them to face the full wrath of the law.

The police public Relations Officer of the state Police Command, Ireju Barasua, a Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) who confirmed the incident however called on the public to always assist the police with timely information on criminal activities, as to enable the police move into action.

Another Missing Ship (Nigerian Tribune)

CURIOUSLY, it seems that Nigeria’s reputation for the proliferation of absurdities is on a steady rise. Now, it is commonplace for ships arrested for one crime or the other to literally disappear from the custody of those keeping them as if they were some small items that could be pilfered by a common pickpocket!

ABOUT two months ago, two ships, MT Balle and MT Alruhula, were used to transport crude oil that was fraudulently obtained. The officers and crew of the ships were arrested by some “overzealous” naval men in the Calabar area and the ships were steered to Port Harcourt. The ships were then officially delivered to the officers of the NNS Pathfinder at their base in Port Harcourt.

BUT rather than moor the ships, the officers of the Pathfinder found a path for the ships to escape and the naval authorities tried to cover up the scandal until a group called Nigerian Youths for Good Governance made allegations against the Nigerian Navy establishment and when the press asked the Navy to react to these allegations, they issued a statement on the matter.

ITS Director of Information, Captain Obiora Medani, said it was true as stated by the Nigerian Youths for Good Governance that two ships detained at the Port Harcourt base had disappeared but that the naval authorities had not tried to conceal the matter and that a board of inquiry headed by a Captain Bimbo Ayuba would determine if the crude found on the ships was illegally obtained and whether the NNS Kyanwa had a good reason to arrest the two ships.

IT is pertinent to recall that many high ranking naval officers were retired following the disappearance of MT African Pride because, according to the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, the officers had criminal connection with crude oil. As we asked in our Editorial of June 28, 2007, from where the foregoing is copiously quoted, “Is retirement a retribution for these Mephistophelian atrocities? Is retirement alone enough deterrent to others who might have discovered a greater reward in this criminality than in continued stay in service?”

CAPTAIN Medani, however, after our editorial on the Navy and the missing ships, had made allegations in the newspapers about a smear campaign in the media being sponsored by certain ex-naval officers who had been compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Navy and their relations trying to impugn the integrity of the Chief of Naval Staff and discredit the Board of Inquiry. Captain Medani even called the Nigerian Youths for Good Governance a fictitious group.

HOWEVER, hardly had he finished writing when another ship, an impounded Greek vessel, MT Tritya, escaped, this time, with three security officials detailed to secure it. This was disclosed at a press conference by the legal consultants to the shipping agents. The ship, according to the legal consultants, was legally detained as a pre-judgment security for the satisfaction of the civil claims of the shipping agents until an acceptable security by way of bank guarantee had been furnished by her owners. The ship had been impounded through an injunction obtained from the Federal High Court in Lagos against the vessel and three others claiming certain amounts of money until the final payment for short delivery of the cargo of gas and oil.

WE are worried by the regular disappearances of vessels from Nigeria, especially vessels detained over one offence or the other. We think that their escape in the various circumstances had been facilitated by bribed hands. The latest ‘disappearance’ is even curioser, as the security officers who were supposed to secure it ‘disappeared’ with the vessel. Were they abducted by the criminals who steered the vessel away under the cover of night? Or did they too connive with the criminals to get out of the country to seek for greener pasture elsewhere? The three security officers who reappeared some days after claimed they were abducted and brutalised by their captors before being released on the high sea. This claim needs to be investigated too by the authorities.

DISAPPEARANCE of vessels with ease speaks volumes about the security of the country’s territorial waters and this is where the Navy is implicated. If ships under its observation can ‘disappear’ without any trace and officers who had been found guilty had only been retired, how much easier will it be for other ships bound only by legal constraints from the courts to escape too?

THE ‘disappearance’ of MT Tritya should be properly investigated using all diplomatic leads and those found to be guilty should be appropriately punished by the relevant authorities. The Navy too should do better than whine about a smear campaign when in reality ships are disappearing, like small items that can easily be contained in someone’s pocket. It is plainly absurd that in the Nigerian state, ships can easily slide into the waters when the pockets of some felons bulge with ill-gotten wealth.

Report from the Creeks (Vanguard)

PASTOR Ayo Oritsejafor is the general overseer of Warri-based Word of Life Bible Church and the national president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN who recently initiated a spiritual solution to the protracted Niger Delta crisis. After several weeks of evangelical mission to Europe and America, he recently granted Sunday Vanguard, an interview during which he x-rayed the state of the nation, and the Niger Delta. Excerpts

THE Yar'Adua government started with an industrial action. We just want you to look at the state of the nation.

I have a feeling that I always seem to talk differently from everybody else. I don't like talking because that's what is popular or that's what everyone likes to hear; because there are certain things people want you to say.

For me, I will say, first, thank God that we came through the elections and we are still a nation together. I say thank God because there were some things some of us won't want to say publicly. Before the elections, there were spiritual indications which I never said anything to you about, that the problem was not just going to be the elections but immediately after the elections and so some of us had to set certain things in motion.

I don't want to go into all the details. We needed to get people to do certain things - to pray us through and so that's why I said, number one, thank God that we came through the elections and we are still and will continue to remain a nation. The second thing is, in my own opinion, some of the things that have happened like the industrial action, for example, it was rather unfortunate. I think first of all that there were problems on both sides.

I am going to be economical with words because it has come and gone. I don't think at this point, I should be the one stirring up anything, talking this way or talking that way but, like I said, it was a very unfortunate thing that happened when it happened at that point in time. But thank God again it has come and gone.

I believe also that the Yar'Adua's government is beginning to find its feet. It's not going to be easy because in my own opinion, he is stepping into very big shoes, big Nigeria and big Obasanjo that has just left. So, it's going to take a while for him to stabilise and be able to bring out his own style of doing things.

I will appeal to the media to help him and give him a chance. Sometimes, some of the things I read are so troubling. Oh Obasanjo is influencing you, and so on. They should just leave this man and let him find his feet. Let him know what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. Give him a break.

The media is only mirroring the mood of the nation. Everybody seems to think that the past president has an overbearing influencing on every decision taken by Yar'Adua...

Is there any proof of that?

Well, for instance, he has taken over the PDP Board of Trustees?

Are you a PDP member? (Laughs). Again, you see, these are some of the troubling things. You are not a member of PDP, I am not a member of PDP. Let's leave PDP to sort themselves out. I've heard people say Yar'Adua is not the president of PDP, he's the president of Nigeria. I hail that.

That is true. He stood for election as a PDP candidate but now he's the president of Nigeria. So let's concern ourselves more with what the government does for Nigeria. Let's downplay this issue of PDP Board or no Board and all that stuff.

I think we are over flogging that issue. To me, it's too much,

let's concentrate more on the government and Nigeria. We want to move forward. There are other parties. I don't want to get a PDP membership card. I'm not a member and I don't want to be a member, I don't think you want to. If they want somebody from the moon to be their chairman, that's their problem, that's not mine.

The day I become a member then I can tell them, I don't like it. But to say that Obasanjo has hand in Yar'Adua's government, to me again, is speculation. It is true that Obasanjo was very much instrumental in bringing him in, we won't run away from that. That's the truth! It's there, it's obvious, but that doesn't make him a man that doesn't know what he wants in life. I mean, when you look at him, the man is 56 years old for God's sake, he's not a child. How did he get to where he is?

Was it Obasanjo that held his arm and took him to school through university? Was it Obasanjo that governed Katsina State for him? I think we should give the man a break. A lot of most of the things we are seeing is speculation and I will tell you why there's so much speculation. Part of it is because there are certain persons who know what people want to hear. I keep repeating that, and they blow up these and you people make them movie stars because they know what you want to hear too.

So, they open their months wide and you put all these things on your front pages and then the next person you go to says his own too and you put his own there. The president and his predecessor should be friends, they shouldn't be enemies! For one thing they belong to the same party, one was instrumental to bringing in the other, and secondly Yar'Adua naturally should consult with him in the sense of you've been in this thing, how did you do it? What happened here, what happened there? These are normal things. So, to me, let them allow this man settle down and do his job.

As part of his settling down, he called for a government of national unity. Are you in support of that?

One hundred per cent! I think it's a very good thing. I think it's a good thing because, first of all, Nigeria is more important than me as a person. Nigeria is more important than Yar'Adua. Nigeria is more important than any individual person. Nigeria is more important than any political party. We all know that we had serious problems during the elections. It's a fact, you can't run away from it. The reality is that there were a lot ofirregularities from all parties. If I may say, some did it more than others, but they all did it.

Let's not pretend about it because that's a fact. I met someone who ran for an office in a certain state and somehow it didn't work out and he was trying to tell me how they did this. So, I sat him down and started telling him how his own people did this and that too. I said we at the grassroots know what happened.

So the truth is that, everybody had a part to play in whatever had happened before. So, looking at where we are coming from, when you think of all the things that happened, yes, some people have been declared winners at the presidential and the state levels.

To find a way to keep Nigeria one, I think it's a very wise thing to reach out to other parties and say alright, come and contribute your part to this. For example, you see that in Obasanjo government, whether we want to give him credit for it or not, some of the people he appointed did very well, some didn't.

Incidentally mostly the women did very well. But if you want to look at it, you should say, Obasanjo did very well as far as those people are concerned. But my point is, some of those people were not even party people initially, but eventually they had to become. But they were not at all. Some were actually from other parties.

Could you imagine if some of those people were not given the opportunity to serve, we will never be talking about them today. That's one. Two, they would never have achieved the things they achieved, not for themselves but for all of us, for Nigeria. The reason they were able to achieve those things was because they were brought in and given that opportunity.

I think the idea is, some of these other parties may have credible people who can come into government, who can also add to this nation, to Nigeria. Because all we want is power supply, good roads, water and food. These are the things we want.

The Niger Delta question and power will be his cardinal programmes. He has spent two months and not even one word yet in that direction...

Is it really that not one word yet? I wouldn't say not one word yet. Again like I've always told you I think nobody will say now that I love Yar'Adua so much. I don't even know the man. Take the Niger Delta for example, I know that they have inaugurated a committee that is supposed to look at the security situation in the area. That is very important because most of the people in that committee know what is on ground.

If you go to Delta State, you'll see that the same thing is on ground now. There is a committee set up by the governor, a waterway security committee and the people in that committee know what is on ground. Now, that is very important. If you are going to solve the Niger Delta problem, you must involve the people who know what is on ground. They've done that. For example, again, NDDC, I initiated something, the week long prayers for peace which was concluded recently.

I actually initiated it through the past president. I think that is very important because one of the mistakes they've always made, when they call the so-called stakeholders in the Niger Delta, they never involve the Church. And it puzzles me, it has always puzzled me why they don't bring in the Church.

I went with the vice president and the Delta State governor, Dr. Uduaghan, to the creeks. I was shocked the way I was received! I was surprised by some of the leaders of the town and the young people. Before the vice president arrived, because some of us went ahead of him, they took me into a big room and gave me a special welcome separately. You know the way we entertain visitors. They brought out money, put money on the table, everything, received me.

I couldn't believe myself. They started singing songs with my name, but I'm a pastor. As I stepped into the place, they were shouting Papa. I couldn't believe myself. I said this is unbelievable. In this kind of place? So, it's a mistake not to have involved the Church all along, because we have something at stake. The Niger Delta, basically, is supposed to be a Christian part of this country.

That is the truth. Let's be honest with ourselves. There are no genuine Muslims anywhere in the Niger Delta. They are not there. Everybody you see there, if they want to be honest with you are Christians, one way or the other. They may not be very committed but that's who they are. Now, if they are Christians, they were baptised in a church probably. Their mothers took them to a church; their fathers took them to a church.

Organizing of prayers

They have gone to a church and I am a pastor. There are still some credible pastors that you can still involve. Like I said to NDDC and I hope we can get this across also to the government and those in charge, not only are we organising prayers, which is very important but we want to be involved further.

We want to be involved in negotiations in the sense of, you see, some of these boys don't trust a lot of government officials but there are people they believe are credible. It's possible they may think some of us are also credible. We can become the bridge, we can say to these boys, we have talked to government, let's give them one year - no fighting, no cheating, no nothing, put your arms down, let them do something.

If they don't, then nobody can blame you. And then we say to government, you see, we have put our neck on the line, my credibility is on the line, now perform. If they don't perform, we'll come out publicly to condemn them. I don't need money from government. I don't need anything. I say it everywhere, every time, I don't need it. No governor has given me one naira before, it doesn't happen because I don't want it. I don't need it. If they don't perform, we will come out and shout. And when we start talking, people will listen because they know we are not politicians.

So they need to involve us more.

For example, the master plan, a plan is just a plan until you can implement it, but how do you implement it? So, we want to be involved to help, so that this plan can be implemented. And in implementing it, there has to be dialogue and this dialogue has to involve the church. A lot of the institutions in this country have been bastadized, many don't have credibility and I don't want to start mentioning them.

But I think to an extent, there are still people in the Church leadership that have credibility that can say this is it and they will stick to it. And we know that if we say something and we don't do what we say then we're in trouble because we have nothing to preach to anybody. My members can walk out of the church because truth, justice, equity, all these things are directly, not indirectly, related to what we do. It's a direct thing. So if I don't stick to what I say, it goes completely against everything that am saying. So I have no platform.

What practical solution do you expect from the prayer sessions?

First of all, everything physical derives from the spiritual and so prayer is very important because there's no way you'll want to achieve peace without calling on the prince of peace. God is the owner of peace. There is a spirituality that goes with peace. When you call upon Him and you do it right, God can enter into the hearts of men. Two people who disagreed before suddenly can begin to agree.

You remember in the Bible, Jacob was coming from his uncle's place and he was told that Esau was coming with 400 men angry because of what Jacob did to him. And Jacob had an encounter, in other words, he had an all-night prayer meeting. In the morning, when Esau saw him, instead of killing him, Esau embraced him. So who created that peace? Was it Jacob? No, it was supernatural. So there is a supernatural aspect to the problem in the Niger Delta.

There are demonic forces that want to maintain the status quo because it is only in this kind of atmosphere that idol worship can thrive. Idol worship only thrives in confusion, in poverty, in this kind of situation. The moment development starts coming, believe you me, idol worship is gone.

Nobody will have time for that. And these spirits know this that's why they blind our people spiritually to make sure they can't understand this fact. If not, you sit down and think, our people had all these shrines, the white man came and colonised them with all these heavy shrines, used them as slaves and yet the juju couldn't do anything.

They can't even think, when these people came, some of our people were naked, they had to give you cloth to cover you and your juju was there, your juju liked you naked, running around in the forest. People are not thinking, with all these things you're serving, telling you bring blood, telling you to kill your brother, kill your fellow human being. You think that's a good thing? It certainly cannot be, but they are not thinking. So there are problems there and these spirits like it that way.

So we have to challenge this and the way to challenge it is spiritually. You can't challenge spiritual things with physical things. So what we have brought into it now is the spiritual dimension so that the prayers that have been done now for this one week, and like I told them, you can't end with one week of prayers.

Nigeria Security Update #1 290707

2007-07-29T09:34:00.000Z

Changing Tactics in the Niger Delta -- Analysis

Nigeria’s well endowed oil and gas basin, the Niger Delta, has been on the front burner of national and international discourse in recent years. The reason for this is not far-fetched.

For the country’s treasure trove, it has been a sordid tale of squalor, neglect and underdevelopment in the midst of wealth and plenty. Successive governments and the oil exploring multinational firms in the last five decades have only made half-hearted efforts to tackle the endemic and mind-boggling poverty in the region.

Courtesy of the Niger Delta, Nigeria today exports about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil per day; it is Africa’s biggest oil industry, the second largest exporter of oil to the United States, sixth oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the 10th among oil producing countries in the world.

But this statistics appear insignificant against the backdrop of recent anarchic developments in the region, which resulted in the country losing at least $13 billion monthly on oil exports, besides cutting oil production by a quarter. In the last 18 months or so, several armed groups have emerged to lay claim to greater control of the region’s resources and revenue. Oil platforms and installations have often been attacked and destroyed by such groups, whose members usually abduct foreigners to draw attention to their demands.

Other criminal-minded groups have also joined the kidnapping fray. These insurgents have extended their nefarious acts beyond abduction of only foreigners to women and toddlers and in return demand huge ransom before the hostages are set free. At the moment, it is difficult to say whether such acts have anything to do with the so-called political or liberation struggle in the impoverished region.

Several pundits believe past attempts by the government to address the problem have been tokenistic and aggravated rather than resolve the issues. From the days of the river basin authorities to the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) down to the subsisting Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the problem had always been that of poor funding coupled with corruption and the lack of political will.

The government had also tinkered with the idea of stakeholders and consultative fora as well as setting up of committees, with the latest being the Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee that was established in June by the President Umaru Yar’Adua administration to chart a new way forward. Although the Senator David Brigidi-led committee is yet to show any discernible direction and focus, analysts are pessimistic whether it would be any different from past groupings, whose assignment came to naught at the end of the day. At least, it is foolhardy to continue to do the same thing the same way and expect a different result.

As stakeholders and the NDDC grapple with how to bring sustainable development to the region, the fact remains that the persistence of gross underdevelopment and the escalating violence are enough pointers that previous attempts at addressing the issue have been futile or have not given enough succour. To such pundits, there is need for a change of tactics on the part of government. The reasoning is that it is high time the Federal Government threw the Niger Delta challenge to private initiatives or policy institutions like the National Think-Tank, which had recently volunteered on its own to find answers to some of the lingering questions in the country, including the Niger Delta question.

National Think-Tank coordinator, Steve Azaiki, in a paper entitled: "Momentum for the Niger Delta", argues that there is no shortage of ideas on the way forward. According to him, there is a surfeit of proposals as various groups, individuals and stakeholders articulate their positions and proffer what they consider the appropriate template upon which to launch the region into a new and desirable era.

Some have even suggested a summit on the Niger Delta by the Federal Government. But the thinking among pundits is that such a forum organised by the government will be premature at this stage. The reason being that the government must move away from the habit of hurriedly getting on the driver’s seat without a dependable road map.

Even such a summit, by its conception, does not provide the best forum for brainstorming. How many days can a summit spare? A summit, more or less, is a rectifying forum where the final assent is given to a clean copy that was produced from all the hard labour of earlier negotiations, arguments and counter-arguments that had taken place usually before the summit.

However, the groundwork for a summit on the Niger Delta at this point ought to engage the attention of the National Think-Tank. Its membership, which is an amazing roll call of quality and diverse pool of talented Nigerians may never be readily available to a government-nominated committee that was charged with organising such a summit.

With the plethora of suggestions and multiplicity of stakeholders in the region, it only makes sense that a body like the National Think-Tank should distill and synthesise the various propositions, interact with stakeholders, research into the common denominators on the programme and projects to get the region on track. It should then be in position to present a working document; some invaluable intelligence will guide the preparation for the summit and implementation of the development of the agenda for the Niger Delta.

In Azaiki’s opinion, in rushing into a government-organised summit, especially on the Niger Delta, there is no way stakeholders will not raise as part of their demand the issues of resource control and fiscal federalism. But he says in granting such greater autonomy over resources and enthroning increased fiscal federalism are not matters of executive fiat.

These issues, he maintained, will have to be dealt with constitutionally. Besides, they are not matters that can be resolved in favour of the Niger Delta alone, as other constituent parts of the federation will, to a large extent, be affected by the decisions concerning such issues.

Other posers include: What is the best way to present or handle resources control and fiscal federalism issues at such a summit? What are the best ways of sensitising and winning over Niger Delta stakeholders, to realise the limitation of a summit or to pronounce authoritatively by way of a final solution on the vexed question of fiscal federalism? These and other salient matters are important for a think-tank to think through and present its recommendation on the best approach to maximise a summit on the Niger Delta.

But while the summit may engage in productively mapping out development strategies for the oil-producing region, it may find itself bogged down by the agitation for resource control, a situation that will command more headlines. Such scenario will send wrong signal and would heighten the propaganda that the Federal Government is unable to find answers to the needs of the peoples of the region. This may also lead to a fresh escalation of crisis in the creeks.

Azaiki, who is a former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) in Bayelsa State, believes Nigeria should strive to get away from the practice where the government is always at the forefront of everything no matter how genuinely concerned it may be. This is because in its haste to get things done or to be seen to be concerned, government misses out on the benefits that a more rigorous situation analysis and recommended course of action would provide.

For a lasting solution to the problems of the Niger Delta, let other actors, including stakeholders, brainstorm. Let them own the ideas, let them lay on the table what they need and what they would cherish. It is at this point that government as the trustee of the nation can step in to give its official seal of approval on what it can do either in the present or in the future, taking into consideration the vital interest of the other component groups in the nation.

Speaker's 70-Year-Old Mother Still Held Hostage -- Analysis (Vanguard)

*Bayelsa in frantic search for abducted septuagenarian mother of speaker

‘I cried and watched my aged mother being lowered into the boat and it disappeared into the night'

THE kidnap on Tuesday night of Mrs. Hansel Seibarugu, the mother of the Speaker of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, in the sleepy riverine settlement of Akaibiri in the Ekpetiama clan of Yenagoa Local Government Area has again brought to the fore the anarchy in the troubled Niger Delta.

Armed groups initially operating in the oil fields of the Niger Delta, demanding a greater share of political rights and revenues for their polluted and impoverished region, resorted to kidnapping expatriates to draw attention to the blighted region and have burgeoned into several splinter bodies some of which have degenerated to money making machines. But the availability of arms as well as growth in the number of criminal gangs and the involvement of some powerful local politicians during last April elections has also helped to stoke this alien culture of violence in the once peaceful region.

For those not conversant with the beautiful but underdeveloped rural riverine settlement of Ekpetiama, one of the host communities to the multi billion naira Ubie Gas Gathering Project, being undertaking by oil major, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), it is a long stretch of marshy land on the bank of the Nun River that snakes through the state capital. It is an area that could be accessed both by land and river while most of the communities can only be reached by boat during this period of the year (flood season).

Interestingly, the natives, many of whom reside in the big cities across the country, love returning to their ancestral home to spend their vacation because of its serene and natural surroundings believed to be a soothing balm to the hassles associated with life in the city.

However, Tuesday night abduction of 70 year old Mrs Hansel, fondly called “Mama Yenagoa” has not only shattered this myth but has also brought to the fore the frightening dimension youth activism has assumed in the troubled oil rich Delta where armed gunmen now prey on toddlers and parents of public office holders for monetary gains. It is still not clear what led to the abduction of the septuagenarian woman whose only crime is giving birth to a son who turned out to be the speaker of the state House of Assembly. But an eyewitness, Mr. Tuanake Nimitei, told Sunday Vanguard, who visited the community shortly after the news of the kidnap filtered into Yenagoa, that some strange faces were noticed ostensibly on reconnaissance about four days before the victim was whisked away.

Wary of their movement, he claimed to have challenged one of the strangers who told him they were fuel dealers in search of potential market. The strangers, he added, turned out to be the invaders who whisked away the aged woman in their speedboats without any resistance from the villagers many of whom had travelled to a neighbouring community for a social function.

The younger sister of the speaker, identified as Powei Sam, who was with her aged mother when the gunmen struck, recalled with pain how she was kidnapped.

Sitting in front of their cream coloured apartment which stood out from other buildings in the community, the visibly lady, fighting tears from dropping from her swollen eyes, recounted how she and her mother were seated at her shop located by the bank of the Nun River when four boys walked up to them and requested to buy liquor ‘Chelsea’.

The mother, she noted, had made it a habit to spend her time at the shop as a form of exercise. “As I was about attending to them, two of the youths grabbed mama and immediately dashed to the water front where a speed boat occupied by two others was already steaming waiting for those that came for my mother,” she said, adding that her shout for help was of no consequence as most of the youths who could have come to her rescue had gone to town to attend a social function.

“I cried and watched my aged mother being lowered into the boat and it disappeared into the night,” she lamented. Sympathizers, especially women who thronged the kidnapped woman’s home, were heartbroken, saying, “we want mama back, because she is sick.”

A youth who simply identified himself as Ebiowei told Sunday Vanguard that the operation could have been averted had the speaker taken seriously information allegedly leaked to him shortly on his arrival from London, last week, that plans were afoot to kidnap his mother. He said though the speaker had planned to relocate his mother to Yenagoa on getting the information, nobody knew why he changed his mind before jetting out to South Africa.

Also an eyewitness said he was at the river taking his bath when the gunmen struck but that there was nothing he could do because the invaders were heavily armed, stressing that they even released volley of shots in the air to warn any likely intruder before they disappeared into the night.

Similarly, the deputy Amananaowei of Akaibiri town, Chief Mekwe Nimitei, said he had retired to his bed after the day’s job only to be jolted from his deep sleep by the distress cry of the people. The royal father who spoke in his native Ijaw dialect said the kidnappers were already gone when he came out.

With the invaders gone, he said he had no choice but to mobilize his fellow chiefs and community leaders to contact the Joint Task Force and police in Yenagoa. The foremost militant group in the region, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), in a swift reaction, distanced its members from the act, which it linked to what it called internal politics with no connection with the genuine Ijaw struggle for self-determination and resource control.

The group in an online reaction signed by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said, “We were not involved in such a despicable act. The abductions are undoubtedly related to local politics and the government should rather look inwards for the perpetrators or masterminds of this crime.”

Meanwhile, Speaker Werinipre Seibarugu, who was away in South Africa for a parliamentary conference when his mother’s abduction took place, has cut short his stay to return to Yenagoa to join in effort to secure the release of the victim whose whereabouts remained unknown even as his immediate family has moved out of the Legislative Quarters home in Ekeki, Yenagoa. Also, fierce looking mobile police men have taken over security activities at the quarters with only residents allowed into the premises. Confirming the incident, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Julian Opalaeke, said about six heavily armed youths carried out the attack between 8 and 9p.m. He said a suspect had been arrested and was helping the command in its investigation.

Reacting to the incident, Governor Timipre Sylva vowed to purge
the state of criminal elements, which he said were damaging the state economy as well as the sense of security of people doing business there. As at the time of filing this report, no contact had been established with the kidnappers which is coming barely five days after the state assembly through its chairman committee on information, culture and media, Hon. Robert Enogha, denied initiating moves to impeach Seibarugu and the state deputy governor, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi. Ebebi and the speaker were until a few days ago at the centre storm of an impeachment saga rocking the state.

It was gathered that some youths sympathetic to Seibarugu travelled, weekend, to an undisclosed community in southern Ijaw notorious for hostage taking and other related vices where they alleged the aged woman was being held captive by the kidnappers.
Contacted, special assistant to the speaker on media, Mr. Jonah Okah, said the family and the police were still waiting to get word from the kidnappers.

On the whereabouts of the speaker’s wife, Okah said, “Mrs. Seibarugu has just been delivered of a baby, and should be left out of the current problem.” He expressed optimism that the old woman would be released soon as, according to him,” she is innocent and has not done anything to deserve what she is presently passing through.”
Police spokesman, Mr. Iniobong Ikpokette in a telephone chat on Friday, said the command was yet to trace the whereabouts of the kidnapped victim.

Rivers State Bloody Week in Review (Sunday Vanguard)

*Gunmen shoot American Prof., kill commissioner’s brother, oil worker

WILL abduction, shooting, cult related violence and killings ever stop in Rivers State? This is the question on many lips. Many had thought that with the raising of a peace and rehabilitation committee by the state government to reach out to militants and cultists in the state, peace would have started returning to the area. But this much sought after peace is appearing to be a mirage or perhaps it is only a matter of time for it to reign. Within the last two weeks several persons have been killed with many sustaining gun shot wounds.

The most recent victim of the sad state was an American professor, Michael Watt, who was reportedly attacked at the office of a new tabloid, National Point, in Orominike street, D line in Port Harcourt. He was allegedly to have been trailed from a bank on Olu Obasanjo Road where he had gone to withdraw money but was told to come back later.

A staff of the tabloid told Sunday Vanguard he was there to receive an award. Shortly after he stepped into the office, the gun men, about eight of them appeared from the blues, ordering him to produce the money he had gone to withdraw from the bank before coming there.

It was like a dream to the professor, according to an eye witness. He however pulled out the six hundred dollars he had on him. But the dare devil militants or robbers thought he was joking and immediately shot him on the right arm. Perhaps for him to know they were serious and not in a Hollywood session.

When it however dawned on them that the six hundred dollars was the only cash the man had on him; in their frustration they, reportedly, smashed the computers in the office and then thoroughly ransacked the place for anything of value. Before fleeing they allegedly shot a guard attached to the newspaper for making effort to deny them entry initially.

Both victims were later rushed to a nearby hospital. Sunday Vanguard later gathered that the professor who was researching on the Niger Delta was badly wounded on the fingers. None of the hospital staff was ready to comment on his health condition when Sunday Vanguard visited the place.

This sad incident came barely twenty four hours after a newly sworn- in commissioner for energy and natural resources, Eldred Billy Braide, cheated death in the hands of suspected assassins and cultists. But his brother, Ipaly Braide and one other were not lucky as they were felled by the bullets of the assailants. Narrating how it happened to the Sunday Vanguard, a family source said minutes after the commissioner was sworn in at a colorful ceremony in Brick House, last Monday, himself and his wife, political admirers, friends and family members retired to a guest house in Amadi flat area of the state capital for a brief reception put together for him by some of his friends and associates.

When they finished there, they moved to his family compound in Lomumba Street for another get together. It was there the gun men struck. The sources said that residents of the street started noticing some strange youths parading the area on motor bikes after the second leg of the party started. But before they could put their fingers on what was to happen, one of the youths came down from his bike and started shooting into the crowd. Many ran but the killers chased them.

They reportedly caught up with the commissioner’s brother, said to be slightly above forty years and shot him at close range and he allegedly died on the spot. Several others sustained bullet wounds. One of them later died at the hospital.
Confirming the sad news, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, linked it to political rivalry.

Meanwhile, on that same day, an oil worker simply described as Elder Echendu was shot dead at Ede street in Ogbunabali area of the state capital. Sources said he was driving into his house when gun men caught up with him and immediately opened fire, killing him on the spot. Their intention was not clear at press time. But some people in the area feared it was a case of mistaken identity.

It would be recalled that, two weeks ago, a Lebanese was also shot
dead in the same neighborhood. Sources said he was attacked at about midnight. The state police commissioner said the police were not ruling out failed abduction, robbery or even assassination in his case.

The Lebanese according to those in Ogbonde street said he had been doing his furniture business in the area for decades.” We cannot understand why anybody will want to kill him. He had been doing his furniture business in this area for years. He was almost a Nigerian to many of us”, some of his neighbors lamented.

Coming after his experience was the case of two persons who were shot dead on their way from a bank in the state capital. Sources said the gun men trailed them on a motor bike up to Elekahia before opening fire on them. It could not be confirmed if they dispossessed them of any valuable.

Robbers, Sunday Vanguard learnt, now position themselves in front of banks in Port Harcourt waiting for those that go in to make huge withdrawals. But how they manage to know these people is still a mystery to many. Could it be that they have links within the banks? They wait for their victims to come out, trail them to quiet spots and then threaten to shoot them if they don’t hand over the cash.

The security situation has become alarming in many parts of the state. The caretaker committee chairman of Asari Toru Local Government Area, Mr. Ibaninabo Hamilton Dawarey, last week, reportedly, ordered a curfew in the headquarters of his local government after two rival cult groups clashed in Buguma last Sunday leaving one dead.

Governor Celestine Omehia is deeply worried by the sad situation. This prompted his constitution of a peace and rehabilitation committee to persuade these cultists and militants to drop the nefarious acts. The committee headed by Alhaji Hassan Douglass is expected to begin tour of the twenty three local government areas of the state to pursue peace.

It is the prayer of all that peace returns to the state. Already night life has disappeared from the state capital. As early as 6.30 p.m., most residents start racing home for fear of their lives. So the people truly desire peace.

NCAA Threatens to Degrade Airports (This Day)

The Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren has said the authority will degrade any airport that does not meet certain requirements, noting that some of the airports suffer from infrastructural decay and may not be cleared for certification until they are rehabilitated.

Demuren who addressed journalists at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos at the weekend said that the five international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Calabar must meet international standards before they will be cleared for International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) certification, which will take place in September.

He decried the lack of basic facilities in some of the airports and regretted that the Nigeria Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is saddled with too many airports and therefore face daunting challenge to maintain them.

"NCAA will degrade the airports that did not meet the expected standard. FAAN is saddled with so many airports. We cannot accept such decay in our airports. They must meet certain standards so that they will serve the Nigerian public effectively. We must not compromise standards."

On the issue of safety, Demuren said that bad weather was involved in all the accidents that had taken place in Nigeria and cautioned that pilots must wait for bad weather to clear before they operate their flight.

He noted that Nigeria and other countries in Africa are located around tropical revolving thunderstorm, adding that the Gulf of Guinea where Nigeria is located is very stormy.

The NCAA boss disclosed that as part of updating both operators and passengers, weather information will soon be made available at arrival halls of Nigerian airports, stressing that the problem of weather is all over the world.

"All accidents that took place in Nigeria happened in bad weather. Pilots must wait for bad weather to clear before they operate. Nigeria is located in the area of tropical thunderstorm in the gulf of Guinea, but very soon we will begin to show weather reports in arrival halls of the airports."

Demuren revealed that Nigeria has been making progress in the aviation sector, stating that the country must become category 1 compliant so that Nigerians who wish to travel to United States must not go through Europe before going to America but take a direct flight to US.

He said that if the country becomes category 1 compliant it is Nigerian carriers that will benefit because they can now fly to US, which is a very lucrative route.

Besides, the category 1 certification will declare Nigeria's airspace safe and this will boost the nation's economy, noting that within three weeks America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will reply NCAA with its report, which will prompt the authority to start a programme for a more comprehensive assessment by FAA.

The Director-General also noted that it was because the country passed the ICAO audit opened opportunity for Nigerians carriers through the Cape Town Convention and could lease modern aircraft which have boosted the airlines fleet, that in the major routes of Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt one could only see modern aircraft, unlike in the past when old airplanes dotted the nation's skyline.

"About 18 months ago we lost the confidence of the flying public after the two accidents. Nigeria must be category 1 compliant. Things have changed since now. We have relatively new aircraft. We have safe tower project and Nigeria stands a better chance today for investors to come in and do business."

Collapsed Lagos - Badagry Road Causing Strife (Vanguard)

THE collapse of the Lagos -Badagry Expressway has crippled economic activities of many Nigerians who ply the route to their business areas as man-hours are lost endlessly in traffic. The development is provoking angst as it is drawing flakes of both Nigerians and non-Nigerians. Daily, commuters are held in grueling traffic almost endlessly, mainly due to potholes and craters which have since combined to reduce the road to a death trap, forcing vehicles to snarl, while valuable time is lost. On both sides of the road, Sunday Vanguard could count 115 pot holes and 15 craters, between Mile 2 and Okokomaiko.

The points where the holes are common place are First Gate, Agboju, Oluti, Alakija, Mazamaza, Mile 2, Abule Ado, Under Bridge (Trade Fair), Volks, Iyana Iba and Okokomaiko. Added to the woe of commuters on this route is activities of the men of the underworld, who take advantage of the ugly situation and unleash terror. The traffic caused by the collapsed road is being compounded by flood since the rain started .

Consequently, the profile of victims of robbers on the route has been rising. The situation, Sunday Vanguard Business checks reveal, is already taking its toll on trade between Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries, because the route is the major link Nigeria has with these countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic. Following collapsed sections of the road, operators of transport service and traders from Lagos to other cities on the West Coast spend hours from Lagos to Badagry and Seme border for a journey that should not take more than one our.

As a result, transport operators have jerked up their fares, even as the road users count their loses. Our reporters observed last week, many of the commercial transport operators on the Nigeria, Cotonu (Benin Republic) and other West coast route from their base in Mile 2, in Lagos under the aegis of International Transport Association identifying primarily, bad road networks, as one of the major obstacles impeding free flow of traffic. Chairman of the international transport union, Alhaji Abdelrahem Jimoh, who spoke to our reporter, at their Mile 2 garage lamented seriously the effect of the bad road on the Nigerian economy in terms of loses.

Jimoh said that in addition, this ugly situation and adverse negative effect it has brought the nation’s economy, a journey which ought to have taken a passenger less than two hours now takes about four hours. Speaking further, he blamed the governments for not taken their responsibilities serious, quarrying that all the big talks about developing trans boarder working transport system only ends in government papers without actions .

He noted that if the present government is serious in this matter, it must immediately play its role by ensuring that as from today the issue of this international roads will be addressed and made motor able, as this will not only increase business among Nigerians and other people, but it will also help in saving the lives and properties of innocent citizens from further loss of lives to this bad road

“Can you imagine the number of innocent people who have lost their lives on this road, why we are saying this is that it is a problem that cannot be swept aside. Another thing is that sometimes robbers exploit this situation to unleash terror on transporters and passengers. Because we cannot say who will be the next victim, either you or me. Please our urgent call is to tell the present government as transporters to help Nigerians and people of other West African nations in putting this road well. It will help all of us, but above all, it will also help boost the Nigerian economy which all of us are working for.”