Militants Storm Oil Security Vessel, Kill Naval Officer
Some gunmen in the Niger Delta yesterday continued with their attacks on oil facilities, this time storming a security vessel working for Canada’s Addax Petroleum Corp.
The attack resulted in the killing of a Nigerian Navy seaman and injuring several others before being repelled by reinforcements from the military.
According to a Reuters report, the attackers, who came in speedboats, ambushed the vessel with eight navy seamen on board as they travelled from Calabar near Nigeria’s south-eastern border with Cameroon towards Rivers State in the Niger Delta.
The report quoting the spokesman for the Nigerian Navy, Mr. Henry Babalola, said the gunmen were initially repelled and two of their boats sunk after an exchange of gunfire. But the attackers later regrouped and came back in six speedboats to board the vessel.
"About 56 militants boarded the vessel, but they were later dislodged when we got reinforcements and they dispersed into the surrounding creeks," Babalola said.
"We have cordoned off the area and are searching for the militants."
Addax said one navy seaman had been killed and four other navy personnel and crew injured while defending the vessel, which had been contracted to provide security services. It said the attack began shortly before midnight of Sunday.
"We are deeply saddened by this incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family and those of the injured personnel," Addax President and chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jean Claude Gandur, said in a statement.
"We strongly believe that this unfortunate incident was a premeditated act by criminal elements seeking personal benefit."
A senior state security official earlier said three naval personnel and one civilian were injured, while one seaman was missing, presumed dead, after going overboard as shots were exchanged.
Militants who say they are fighting for greater local control of the Delta’s natural resources launched a campaign of violent sabotage against the oil industry – Africa’s biggest – in early 2006, which have forced the world’s eighth-biggest exporter to cut output.
The situation is believed to have largely been responsible for the current hike in oil price at the international market.
Last month, Nigeria's most prominent militant group, MEND, launched an attack on an oil pipeline belonging to the Royal Dutch Shell and claimed to have killed 11 soldiers in the region.
It has, however, become difficult to draw the line between political agitation and criminality in the region, with gangs kidnapping oil workers, children and the aged for ransom and funding themselves by stealing crude oil.
President Umaru Yar’Adua’s year-old administration has said it plans to hold a summit with Niger Delta communities to try to address the root causes of the unrest but has also promised a crackdown on militant camps in the region.
Many in Nigeria still see this move as ineffective in addressing the problem of the region, citing non-release of the full budget for the presidential intervention programme, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), among several others.
Meanwhile, trigger-happy soldiers from the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta also over the weekend went on rampage in a school community of Ufuoma in Ughelli north local Government Area, a host community to Delta State School of Health Technology, leaving in its wake four students shot and scores of others sustaining severe bullet injuries.
Investigations carried out revealed that the soldiers, who were allegedly hired by a 200 level female student (name withheld) of Environmental Health Department of the institution, who was one of the parties in the fracas, wasted no time in going to action by shooting sporadically into the air apparently to scare away some aggrieved youths in the community.
Eyewitness account revealed that the soldiers, who were alleged to have been brainwashed by the story of the female student, later threw caution to the wind by firing directly at some unsuspecting male students who were playing football on a nearby secondary school field believed to have been involved in a face-off with the female student.
One of the victims, who identified himself as Onofuro Yerorovwon, claimed to have been hit by a stray bullet while he was in front of his house, told our correspondent at his hospital bed that he was shot in front of his house when he came out to find out where gun shots were coming from.
The 20-year-old Yerorovwon stated that he just came back from the bush where he went to fetch sticks to construct local ceiling for his apartment when the unfortunate incident occurred.
He said before he could escape, on sighting the soldier, he received a gun shot on his left palm.
Meanwhile, thousands of Ogonis under the auspices of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), staged a peaceful rally in Port Harcourt over the pulling out of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) from Ogoniland.
The people carried placards with various inscriptions, some of which read "Non-violence pays," "Bye bye to Shell," "No more Shell in Ogoni land," "Justice for Ogoni," "justice for all," "Thank you President Yar'Adua," "No more genocide in Ogoni land," among others. They sang and danced through major streets of Port Harcourt and terminated at Government House, where they delivered their solidarity message to President Yar’Adua through Governor Chibuike Amaechi.
In the message delivered on their behalf by the MOSOP president, Mr. Ledum Mittee, they expressed gratitude over the decision of the Federal Government to replace Shell as the oil exploration company in Ogoniland.
Mittee said the Ogonis were committed to playing a more positive and constructive role in the transformation process, just as he expressed the hope that the new challenges and opportunities would be addressed in such a manner that would improve the natural environment and secure a viable future for the people.
The people of Ogoni advised prospective oil operators to break with the past and design a relationship with local people based on just treatment of communities and innovative approach to development and employment.
They contended that if this was done, an inspiring message that non-violence pays would have been sent to the rest of the people of the Niger Delta region.
Receiving the people, Rivers State governor, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, assured them that their message would be delivered to President Yar’Adua, noting that what has happened was an indication that violence was no longer a viable option in the resolution of the issues of the Niger Delta.
Amaechi, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Hon. Magnus Abe, said people who make their case consistently and peacefully now have an opportunity under President Yar’Adua to get justice without recourse to killing anybody.
"As usual, the Ogonis have blazed the trail, the Niger Delta thing everybody is talking about is nothing but an extension of the Ogoni struggle, but the violence that has come with it is a bastardisation of what the Ogonis struggle," he declared.
The governor urged Ogonis to come together and unite in fashioning their future and determine what they can get out of the present situation that God has afforded them, warning that any further misunderstanding within the ranks of the people will not do them any good.
He congratulated the Ogoni people for remaining peaceful, principled and consistent in their quest for better treatment, and enjoined them to remember those who contributed immensely to the struggle but are not alive to witness the victory.
