AND DONT FORGET NIGERIA
21/06/2005
Nigeria: Tribal leader tells oil workers to leave delta area
Tensions in the oil-rich swamps of southern Nigeria continued to boil yesterday, despite the earlier release of several kidnapped oil workers, after a tribal leader said more trouble could lie ahead.
Joseph Evah, coordinator of Ijaw Monitoring Group, one of the largest ethnic groups in the area warned of dire consequences unless all foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta leave and dismissed reports the military was sending helicopters to keep the calm.
"Deployment of helicopters means nothing to us because the sound of guns is like music to us," he told reporters in an interview. On Saturday, militants demanding $20 million from Royal Dutch/Shell or local communities released six kidnapped Nigerian and German oil workers working for a contractor for Shell's Nigerian operations after government mediation.
Unrest is endemic to the region where poverty, corruption and militancy flourish despite years of oil production. "We have called on all embassies in Nigeria to call on their nationals to leave the Niger Delta," Evah said.
The threat comes after the breakdown of a national dialogue on how to allocate Nigeria's oil riches. The four oil-producing states want a greater share of the billions of dollars in oil revenue.
They are demanding at least half of the total oil revenue, up from the current 13%, and more than the 17% offered by the National Political Reform Conference as a compromise. Evah said no oil worker would be allowed to operate in the region while the struggle for resource control rages. "We don't kidnap oil workers, we arrest them because they are criminals," said Evah. "We want to control resources, and if we don't control the resources, there will be trouble in the Niger Delta," he said.
Nigeria produces some 2.4 million barrels a day of oil, making it the world's seventh largest oil exporter and the fifth biggest source of US oil imports.
AI
