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.
