Nigeria Security Update #1 080707

Kidnapped Toddler May be Freed Today (Guardian)

HOPE of release of the British toddler, Margaret Hill, who was abducted by gunmen in Port Harcourt on Thursday, heightened last night.

The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, disclosed to The Guardian that there were indications that the captors might release Margaret to her parents last night or today.

According to him: "There are indications that the little girl might be released today (yesterday) or tomorrow (today). But if she is not released, then the search and effort to get her released will still continue."

This is a reference to the intensified search by security agencies for the three-year-old British girl. The elevated investigation is at the behest of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who, at the weekend, promised government's determination to locate the infant even as he appealed to the kidnappers to free her.

The President, through his spokesman, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, regretted that such incidents were still occurring in spite of the firm commitments of his administration to solving the Niger Delta problem.

"No political or economic grievance could justify the kidnap of a three-year old girl," the President said and directed the security agencies to make every possible effort to ensure that she was returned to her family unharmed.

Meanwhile, the major militant groups in the Niger Delta have pledged their commitment to ridding the region of individuals or groups that involve in the kidnap of persons.

Speaking on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Focus on Africa Programme, monitored in Kaduna at the weekend, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, announced the readiness of the major militia groups to fight against kidnappings.

He said that they would turn against any group involved in the act.

Relatedly, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have condemned Margaret's abduction and called for her immediate release.

The Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Mrs.) Ireju Barasua, told The Guardian yesterday that the whereabouts of the kidnapped girl and the identity of her captors remained unknown.

She explained that security agencies in the state had been collaborating with the intelligence department of the state Police Command to investigate the matter.

According to her: "I spoke this morning (yesterday) to the police investigation department officers, who are handling the matter and they said they are still investigating the case.

"The Police are really working hard to ensure that the child is rescued unhurt to the parents," Mr. Mike and Mrs. Oluchi Hill.

Gunmen snatched Little Margaret at about 07.30am on Thursday on her way to school. The men, who intercepted the car she was being driven in, smashed a window and dragged her out.

Her father, Mike Hill, who has lived in the country for 10 years and who is said to be seriously ill, was asked by the kidnappers to come and swap his daughter's position but was discouraged because of his ill health.

Sources close to Mrs. Hill, the Nigerian mother of the kidnapped child, said that the kidnappers at press time were still insisting that the parents part with unspecified amount of money that could run into millions of Naira before the child could be released to them.

Mrs. Hill had, in a telephone interview with The Guardian on Friday, revealed that she had been in touch with the kidnappers of her daughter, who she desperately wants released and unhurt.

Dokubo-Asari stated at the weekend: "We have just finished a meeting on (Thursday) at Okprogha in Warri Southwest in the Western Delta and we have taken a decision.

"The authentic MEND was there; NDPVF was there; DIYC was there. All the major groups in the Niger Delta were there. We have taken far-reaching decisions to make sure these fellows are brought to book."

He urged the kidnappers to search their consciences since there was always a day of reckoning in this world or in the hereafter.

He, however, pushed the blame of kidnapping to the doorstep of officials of the Federal Government, whom he accused of paying militia groups in the region to carry out the kidnappings.

He also alleged government officials know the people involved in the kidnappings and other crimes in the Niger Delta.

The President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Kimse Okoko said yesterday that the Ijaws, in strongest terms, condemned the abduction of an absolutely innocent three-year-old child and had called on the perpetrators of this evil deed to release the child to the parents.

Okoko described the kidnappers as criminals and not fighters for the cause of the Niger Delta, which is now being painted in bad light in the eyes of the world.

He said: "We have no business kidnapping anybody talkless of kidnapping an innocent child. What crime has the girl committed against the Niger Delta?"

He explained that the INC abhors kidnapping and hostage-taking because it makes the Niger Delta to lose the support and sympathy of the international community.

While calling on those involved in the abduction of expatriates and children to desist from such misdeeds; Okoko appealed to groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and security agencies to use all resources at their disposal to fish out Margaret's kidnappers and ensure that they are prosecuted.

Similarly, the President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr. Ledum Mitee, has joined others in the condemnation of the kidnap of Margaret and called for her release.

The Ogoni activist, who described the abduction of children as a frightening dimension in the hostage-taking crisis in the Niger Delta, said there could never be any justifiable reason for Margaret's kidnap other than for ransom.

"We have reached a frightening dimension. Even in war, you don't kidnap children. For instance, despite all the chaos and breakdown of law and order in places like Iraq and Somalia, they don't kidnap children and women. This is criminal and we condemn it," he said.

Mitee urged the government to investigate persons including security agencies involved in negotiation and payment of ransom to kidnappers for the release of expatriates and other abducted persons.


Worries of Nigeria Send Price of Oil Soaring (AFP)

Brent North Sea crude oil climbed past US$76 per barrel for the first time in almost a year on Friday, fueled higher by unrest in Nigeria and concerns over tight US gasoline supplies.

Brent North Sea crude for August delivery touched US$76.01 per barrel, a level last reached on Aug. 11 last year.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, hit US$72.94 -- the highest level since Aug. 25.

In southern Nigeria, gunmen who kidnapped a three-year-old British girl have threatened to kill her -- unless her father takes her place, her mother said on Friday, as unrest continued to blight Africa's biggest crude producer.

Prices have also found support after the US Department of Energy revealed on Thursday that US gasoline or petrol reserves were about 4.2 percent below their level at the same time last year.

BNP Paribas analyst Harry Tchilinguirian said fresh violence in Nigeria has been bullish for prices because Nigerian crude has a high gasoline content.

"If you look at what is happening in the US right now, you see that gasoline inventories are relatively low, and refineries there are having trouble coming of maintenance because of unplanned outages," he said.

"So it's a low gasoline situation, and you are also removing from the market crudes which have a high gasoline content, so people are going to turn to the next alternative -- and that's Brent," Tchilinguirian said.

In London later on Friday, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery showed a gain of US$0.81 at US$75.56 per barrel in electronic deals.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, stood US$1.09 higher at US$72.90 in US floor trading.

The main separatist group in the oil-rich Niger delta meanwhile condemned the kidnapping of three-year-old Margaret Hill, and said they would hunt down her abductors as authorities stepped up efforts to secure her release.

The Brent oil price is now just a few dollars off its record high of US$78.64 per barrel, struck at the start of August last year. But New York crude has some ground to cover before reaching its historic peak of US$78.40 per barrel, set in mid-July last year.



New Calls for Biafran State (BBC)

The Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria have more reason than ever to seek independence, the leader of the region's 1960s separatist group says.

On the 40th anniversary of the start of the Biafran war, in which more than 1m died, Emeka Ojukwu told the BBC that Igbos were still marginalised.

He also said that 14m people in the region had been denied the right to vote in April's elections.

"The only alternative is a separate existence," Mr Ojukwu said.

But he said it would be possible for Nigeria to remain united.

"Give us a free and fair election - allow us to be fully part of Nigeria," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Mr Ojukwu was a presidential candidate in the polls, coming sixth, with 155,000 votes, according to official results.

The elections, won by ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua, were condemned by international observers as "not credible".

Cases of rigging were recorded in the south-east, as well as other parts of the country.

"What upsets the Igbo population is we are not equally Nigerian as the others," he said.

Such feelings led to Mr Ojukwu's declaration of independence on 30 May 1967.

Five weeks later the first shots were fired in the three-year war, in which more than 1m people died, mostly from hunger.

Mr Ojukwu said he regretted the war and the deaths but said he was proud that his people had fought back.

A Look Back at Civil War's Key Players (This Day)

Even though he was killed before the civil war, General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi had been accused of paving the way for the eventual civil war in 1967. The claims of electoral fraud that trailed the 1965 elections among others led to a military coup on January 15, 1966 led by Igbo junior Army officers of the rank of mostly majors and captains.

This coup led to the ascension of Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo man, as military Head of State. The coup itself failed, as Ironsi rallied the military against the plotters. In spite of the criticisms that followed the coup, some said the coup mostly benefited the Igbos because all but one of the five coup plotters were Igbos and Aguiyi-Ironsi was thought to have promoted many Igbos in the Army at the expense of Yoruba and Hausa officers.

On July 29, 1966, the army officers of northern extraction executed a counter-coup. Aguiyi-Ironsi was overthrown and killed. The counter-coup was led by Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed and brought Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon into power.

His son, Thomas, was appointed to the position of Nigeria's defence minister on August 30, 2006 by the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, perhaps as a compensation to the family.

Yakubu Gowon

Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon became head of the Federal Military Government and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces following the military coup that consumed Aguiyi-Ironsi. At 32 he was Africa's youngest head of state. He was appointed Chief of Staff at Army Headquarters after the Aguiyi-Ironsi coup on January 15, 1966.

As part of his speech marking the ending of the war, Gowon said "this ends thirty months of a grim struggle. Thirty months of sacrifice and national agony." He held further that "our objectives in fighting the war to crush Ojukwu's rebellion were always clear. We desired to preserve the territorial integrity and unity of Nigeria." He referred to the so-called 'Rising Sun of Biafra' as being set forever.

Gowon ruled Nigeria after the war until 1975 when he was overthrown in a bloodless coup by a bunch of Brigadier-Generals led by Murtala Muhammad. After his overthrow he remained in exile in the United Kingdom until he was granted pardon by the civilian administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1980. Today, Gowon sits on several boards of blue chip companies and is the National Coordinator of Nigeria Prays.

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu popularly called Ikemba Nnewi led the secession bid of Biafra from Nigeria. B

He decided to join the military against his father's wishes for him to study law. He graduated from the prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy in England. He later became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Nigerian army and was appointed Military Governor of the oil rich Eastern Region by Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi. Following an anti-Igbo/Christian genocidal pogrom in the Muslim Northern Region, a meeting of Igbo customary chiefs at Umuahia in the Eastern Region decided to declare the region independent, consisting the Igbo heartland, the Niger Delta (mostly Ijaw area) and the Cross River basin (Efik and Ibibio areas), independent. Ojukwu was chosen by the Igbos to lead the new country and appointed Head of State and General of the Peoples Army, named "Biafra" after the Bight of Biafra.

Ojukwu escaped from Biafra and went into exile as it collapsed, intending to set up a government in exile. He subsequently lived in Ivory Coast for 13 years. Seeking to bolster his support among Igbos, President Shehu Shagari pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return to Nigeria in 1980. He joined Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and contested the 1983 election for the Senate, but was robbed by electoral fraud and shameless rigging. As the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), he unsuccessfully ran for President in the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections. He lives a quiet life in Eastern Nigeria.

Philip Effiong

Philip Effiong was Ojukwu's Vice President during the war. After the war, he became the second and last President of the now defunct Republic of Biafra. When Biafra's military fiat collapsed, and Ojukwu fled to Côte d'Ivoire, Effiong assumed leadership in the situation of turmoil, starvation, and collapse. He became president of Biafra on January 8, 1970 and four days later surrendered to the Nigerian forces. At the time of the surrender, Effiong did not hide his belief.

He explained that the situation was hopeless and that prolonging the conflict would have led only to the further destruction and starvation of the people of Biafra. Effiong died November 6, 2003, at the age of 78.

Olusegun Obasanjo

Like many senior officers, then Col. Olusegun Obasanjo fought along with the federal troops to suppress Ojukwu's ambition. In his book, "My Command," Obasanjo gives a vivid account of the civil war, its historical background, an eyewitness account, among others. He served under various capacities in the army until Gowon appointed him as the General Officer Commanding 3 Marine Commando. Obasanjo took over from Col. Benjamin Adekunle, who was also seen as a veteran. Obasanjo became a household name in 1970 because he was the one who led the final onslaught that led to the downfall of the Biafra and ended the war. It is no wonder that on May 29, 2000, Obasanjo commuted to retirement the dismissal of all military persons who fought for the breakaway state of Biafra during the Nigerian civil war.