More than two years after the Federal Government granted unconditional amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta and created avenues for the training and development of the youths, disgruntled groups of militias under the aegis of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, have continued to kill security agents and carry out more disruptions to oil facilities in the region. They have threatened to unleash more attacks on the country and South African companies in Nigeria. Soni Daniel examines the resurgence and atrocities of the bad boys despite the success of the amnesty programme.
The story broke like a hurricane. “Militants kill eight JTF personnel: four soldiers and four policemen.” Just as the security agents were trying to fish out the masterminds of the dastardly act, the creek boys struck again, this time, bombing a major gas pipeline belonging to Agip in Bayelsa State.
Indeed, another round of mindless war- killings, destruction of vital oil facilities, kidnap for ransom and rape- has just resumed, threatening the success of the widely hailed Amnesty Programme instituted by the government on June 25, 2009.
No doubt, the AP has effectively curtailed the exploits of the bad boys and restored measured peace to the region, once too unsafe for business and tourism. But the new challenge being posed to lives and property, has pushed the Joint Task Force, now renamed ‘Operation Pulo Shield’ to a new level of alertness, which is yet to fully put the boys at bay.??
Thus, what had become a regular feature on the roadsides and on the vast waterways that crisscross the Niger Delta is back on track. Soldiers armed with sophisticated weapons now patrol creeks and roads in the region, while daring militants, who have distanced themselves from the amnesty programme, also hide in the thick forest that abound in the area to kill, steal crude and refined petroleum products as well as abduct high net worth persons for pecuniary reasons.
Although, the AP has been in place for over two years, there has been a running battle between security agents and armed gangs across the region. As it were, though oil production had moved up significantly following the involvement of over 25, 000 former militants in the AP, those opposed to it, never hid their disdain for the programme and the agents of the law.
In early March, a notorious militant, known as Mammy Water opened fire on a military convoy killing a lieutenant colonel, three naval ratings and four policemen.
According to reports, Mammy Water and his gang first attacked the Marine Police check-point and killed four policemen before swooping on Karankiri junction along Eweleso River to confront the soldiers.
Emboldened by their apparent easy ride over the soldiers, the thug and his gang descended on the “One Man Camp”, a fishing settlement where they engaged a naval patrol team in a gun fight but that proved too strong for him and his men. They were killed by the superior fire power of the JTF.
That attack sent a strong signal to the militants that the soldiers are not in the creeks for an observer mission but to kill and maim anyone who dares the nation’s economic and security interests.
But the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, whose founding members are believed to have gone underground, still issued a statement claiming to have carried out the attacks on the JTF.
Jomo Gbomo, whose identity is still shrouded in doubt, said the militants carried out the attack to prove to the JTF that they were still very active in the creeks as opposed to the claim by the government that it has dislodged them.
Gbomo also said that contrary to the claim by the JTF, they lost no fewer than ten soldiers to the attacks.
The MEND’s spokesman said, “Unfortunately, the MEND is again compelled to respond to the rambling of the spokesperson for the JTF.
“We re-assert our claim to the attack on the marine police patrol and urge the public to discountenance the propaganda of the JTF which attributes the attack on its convoy to pirates.
“We challenge him to produce the bodies of all the “pirates” killed by the JTF.”
He added that government was misleading the Nigerians and the entire world by stating that peace had returned to the Niger Delta, even as he threatened that MEND would soon commence fresh waves of attacks on oil facilities in the region.
He said, “The government of Nigeria seeks to mislead Nigerians and the rest of the world into thinking the unrest in the Delta is over.”
But the JTF disputes the militants’ claim, saying that the attacks were not carried out by the MEND.
“It is instructive to note that Mammy Water and his gang were the criminals behind the series of pirate attacks within Nigerian territorial waters in the last three months. This led to the JTF storming his residence in Azagbene in December and his subsequently being declared wanted.
“The JTF wishes to make it clear that the attack on its personnel and other atrocities committed within the last three months have been staged by a few different and uncoordinated groups of itinerant criminals operating within the Niger Delta region.
“Consequently, the JTF dismisses the shameful attempt by the so-called MEND to seek relevance by creating a false impression that the attacks were? carried out by loyal groups of militants of which it is the coordinating authority,” Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, the JTF spokesman said.
But shortly after killing of the soldiers and reprisal attack by the JTF, MEND issued a new threat to unleash more attacks on South African interests in the Niger Delta because of the country’s involvement in the continued detention of its leader, Henry Okah over the October 1, 2010 bombing in Abuja.
“Our decision to attack South African investments in the Niger Delta is directly related to the conduct of President (Jacob) Zuma regarding the continued incarceration in South Africa of Henry Okah,” the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an e-mail statement.
“What is happening in South Africa is a travesty of justice which must be condemned by all,” MEND said, adding that Pretoria was conniving with the Abuja authorities to detain Okah unjustly.
“The South African government is simply being used by the Nigerian government to hold Okah in prison for as long as it possibly can,” it said.
“MEND will commence with attacks on MTN South Africa infrastructure in the Niger Delta region,” it said, but added that this will be done after pre-attack warnings.
“Concerning attacks on MTN related infrastructure, MEND will issue shortly a set of guidelines to MTN employees, customers and owners of properties accommodating MTN-related communication equipments,” it said.
“These guidelines are intended to minimise civilian casualties and forestall the unnecessary destruction of privately-owned properties accommodating MTN equipments,” it added.
Beyond the ceaseless attacks on individuals and oil facilities, aggrieved groups in the region also allege that they have not been integrated into the AP, while their counterparts who embraced the programme are doing well in and outside Nigeria. They threaten to block roads and other economic facilities in the region until they were admitted to the programme.
But the Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, insists that the militants who surrendered their arms and signed up for the programme had since been properly been listed, demobilized and trained in their chosen fields within and outside Nigeria.
Kuku says that the programme cannot run indefinitely and that those who did not embrace the programme are not part of it.
However, the National Assembly is still worried over the atrocities being perpetrated by the militants.
Consequently, the House has adopted a motion mandating its Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Niger Delta Ministry and Public Safety and National Security to investigate the performance of all relevant bodies connected with the management of the AP.
In the motion entitled “Urgent need to address the new wave of attacks and threats by the MEND”, Ifeoluwa Arowosoge Abiose , asked the House to also investigate another attack on a crude oil facility in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State on February 4, 2012.
Abiose pointed out that the militants whose activities had subsided for about two years, had warned of more bomb attacks aimed at shutting down Nigeria’s oil production to zero level and chasing away all oil companies from the Niger Delta.
He warned that the militants attacks coupled with the menace of Boko Haram had the potential to harm the country’s economy and image.
“Making good their threat by attacking South African interests in Nigeria would, no doubt, weaken the good diplomatic and business relationship between the two leading African nations,” he said.
While MEND has not been directly linked with piracy operations, its recent warning to ships off Nigerian coast is said to have confirmed earlier reports of links between pirate gangs and some segments of Niger Delta militants.
Multi-national oil firms in Nigerian had recently raised the alarm over the high crude theft in the Niger Delta with one of the company declaring that Nigeria is losing as much as 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Many maritime experts have also expressed fear that the threats by MEND may internationalise its terror attacks based on its new premise of attacking both Nigerian and South African target.
Worried by the raft of attacks by MEND and threats to unleash more on the nation and its interest, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has warned the militants to stop further assault on the nation but to toe the path of peace in accordance with the AP, which they subscribed to in 2009.
The party’s Publicity Secretary in Bayelsa State, Mr. Christopher Abarowei, in a statement in Yenagoa, said, “These threats of attacks by MEND on oil installations will result in a cut of oil production by half and adversely affect development of the state and the Niger Delta in general.”
“ACN calls on MEND to exercise restraint and threats and action overheat the already tensed polity, it will also pose a security threat to the peace and development of the Niger Delta and Nigeria in general,” the secretary said.
Between 2006 and 2008, the militants had through a combination of strategies–bombing of oil facilities, bunkering, kidnapping and harassment of oil workers cut Nigeria’s oil supply by over one million barrels per day and caused significant setback to the industry and the nation’s economy.
In 2006 alone when no fewer than 200 foreign oil workers were kidnapped by the militants and many oil installations stalled, Nigeria lost $4.4 billion by being forced to shut in over 600,000 barrels of oil per day.
“In 2007, the security situation in the Niger Delta remained serious. Forty seven staff and contractors were kidnapped by militants. Tragically, two were killed in assaults and a third died as a result of a fire caused by criminals stealing oil? from a pipeline”, Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Jeroen van der Veer reported in the company’s 2007 Sustainability Report.
But Gbomo has continued to dismiss the idea of amnesty for militants as a prelude to making peace.
“Amnesty without addressing the core issues of resource control and justice for is like taking Panadol for malaria fever. By the way, the Niger Delta people should be the ones giving amnesty to the criminals who have been stealing from them in the past 50 years”, he stated.
Just like the late Yar’Adua did in 2009 by granting unconditional amnesty to repentant militants and increased avenues for the transformation of the Niger Delta, the present administration has gone a step further to empower the militants with a view to ending the atrocities and economic sabotage in the region.
Many of the militant leaders are handling strategic projects in the region, with one of them, who recently bagged a multi-million deal to patrol the waterways with a view to checking oil bunkering, piracy and other maritime crimes. The job is worth $106 million or N16 billion.
Despite the preferential treatment meted out to some of the militant leaders, the bad boys appear unmoved by the carrots being dangled by the federal government. It is not clear if the same government will be willing to wield the big stick to force the thugs to shape in. For now, they are on the prowl.