Again, Militants Attack Another SPDC Facility
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Port Harcourt, 06.30.2008
Militants have again attacked Shell Petroleum Devel-opment Company (SPDC) facilty - Oloma flow Station in Bonny - and allegedly killed four naval personnel and three civilians.
The attack was carried out yesterday, but SPDC spokesman, Mr. Precious Okolobo, denied the attack, saying, “As far as we can tell, Oloma flow station was not attacked. It is still operating.”
However, spokesman of the Navy Base in Pathfinder, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, Lt. Olabisi Wey, confirmed the attack, but denied that any personnel was killed.
He said they were yet to account for one naval personnel, while a civilian was beheaded on the boat.
Spokesman for the military Joint Task Force (JTF), Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, said: “There was an encounter at about 1800 hours yesterday when about 30 unknown gunmen attacked a location at Coal Beach in Bonny. One soldier was wounded, a civilian was beheaded by the bandits, two militants were killed as a result of the encounter.
“On the attack of the navy boat, the attack was repelled and it is feared that one person might have lost his life due to the encounter.”
SPDC's Bonga field was June 19 shut down following an attack on the oil field by militants.
Located 120 kilometres (75 miles) offshore, Bonga oil field has a daily production capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas.
The militants, numbering about 20, were said to have operated in three speedboats.
The attack had resulted in the shut in of about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is about 10 per cent of Nigeria's current daily production of about 2 million bpd.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened more attacks.
According to a statement from the official site of MEND, spokesman of the group, Gbomo Jomo, had boasted that the next attack would "cripple the facility on a final note," adding that MEND would carry out attack on any oil facility no matter where it is located.
The dreaded militia group had warned that all expatriate staff working on the facility and within Niger Delta should be evacuated to avoid casualties, saying it had decided to prove to "the Federal Government that it was not happy with the present situation in the region."
Following the attack, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had ordered the military to fish out those responsible for the attack.
There were reports weekend that the Federal Government had deployed war ships in the Niger Delta in order to maintain security surveillance in the region.
Already, two warships - NNS Ologbo and NNS Nwamba - are said to bes in the region, while the Federal Government is reported to have ordered the importation of more sophisticated warships to beef up security in the region.
The importation of the warships is among the fresh security measures of the Navy to complement the entire military operations under the JTF in the region.
According to reports, the Director of Naval Information, Capt. Henry Babalola, had confirmed the order for the importation of the military hardware.
He had said the defence boats would be acquired from Australia and Malaysia.
He said the navy had also sealed arrangements to procure some weapons from Singapore.
