Nigerian oil militants threaten to end ceasefire
Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:08pm EST
By Austin Ekeinde
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The main militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta threatened on Wednesday to end its ceasefire and attack military targets in retaliation for the killing by soldiers of a gang leader.
"MEND has decreed today every soldier in uniform inside the Niger Delta region as a fair target," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an e-mailed statement.
"Our first spectacular urban attack on a military patrol will announce the end of the ceasefire."
The military said on Tuesday it had shot and killed a gang leader who spearheaded violent clashes between rival factions over control of a lucrative trade in stolen oil.
Tubotamuno Angolia, also known as "Boy Chiki", was arrested in the Bakana district of Rivers state but was shot when he tried to escape, said Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the joint military taskforce in Rivers.
MEND rejected that version of events, saying Angolia had been handcuffed and urinated and spat on before being executed.
It said Angolia was not a member of MEND, but that such killings by the security forces were becoming "a common practice endorsed by the Nigerian government" in the Niger Delta.
The military said on Wednesday they had arrested four more suspected criminals, including Barikpoa Nwinam, alias ECOMOG, believed to be the hitman for militia leader Ateke Tom, blamed for the violence in Okrika district of Rivers state.
Troops also arrested Clifford Kamana, who is alleged to have organised several kidnappings, including the recent seizure of the mother of a local politician for ransom.
MEND, which has been holding two British oil workers hostage for four months, began a unilateral ceasefire in the Niger Delta in late September following a week of clashes with the military and attacks on oil industry installations.
MEND's three-year old campaign of violence has cut oil output from Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest exporter, by around a fifth.
It has threatened in the past to end its September ceasefire but has so far not launched any significant attacks. (Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Lagos, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
