Not Scared To Fight

The relative ease with which members of MEND, overran the military in the attack before kidnapping four foreign oil workers was an eye-opener to the gradual sophistication of the militants’ weaponry and tactics. The four expatriate engineers – Patrick Landry, USA; Nigel Waston-Clark, Britain; Harry Ebanks, Honduras, and Pat Crawley, Bulgaria – were abducted from a Shell Petroleum platform in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. For about three weeks, all entreaties made for the release of the hostages yielded no result. Aso Villa barked, and the military option adopted proved fatal; 14 soldiers died in the Sunday 15 January 2006 attempt to release the hostages. The hostages were eventually released after the militants collected millions of naira from government as ransom. But the violent attacks on oil installations and kidnap of expatriates for ransom had just begun. In one of the emails sent to media houses, signed by Jomo Gbomo, the group warned: “Our aim is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigeria Government to export oil.”  MEND thereafter became the dominant militant group. But its focus soon devated from its stated mission of crippling oil operations in the region. Beyond major operations like the rescue of their members and reprisal attacks on the Joint Task Force, set up to maintain order in the volatile zone, it embarked on indiscriminate abduction of expatriate oil workers and Nigerians alike. The heavy ransoms paid for the release of hostages became a motivation for kidnapping old men and women, nursing mothers, children of wealthy parents and even toddlers.

Attacks by MEND on military personnel and oil installations are legion, but some key ones include the mortar shelling of a patrol boat on 2 October 2006, in which 10 Nigerian soldiers were killed. On the same day, the militants attacked a convoy of Shell vessels near Port Harcourt. The next day, 3 October, a militant group kidnapped four Scots, a Malaysian, an Indonesian and a Romanian from a drinking bar in Akwa Ibom. On 4 October, another attack saw nine soldiers dead. On 22 November 2006, an attempt by a military contigent to rescue kidnapped oil workers led to the death of at least one soldier. On 1 May 2007, MEND seized six expatriate workers from an offshore oil facility owned by Chevron. The group consisted of four Italians, an American and a Croatian. The same day, the militant group published photos of the captives seated on white plastic chairs in a wooden shelter around the remains of a camp fire.

However, the 28 January 2007 operation to free notable militant leader Soboma George from detention at the Central Police Station, Port Harcourt was spectacularly devastating. About 50 MEND fighters anchored their speedboats at the Marine Base waterfront and, shooting sporadically into the air with their submachine guns, they dynamited seven police patrol vehicles and four civilian cars before heading for the station where Soboma was being held for a traffic offence. The fighters destroyed the police station, chasing away all the officers, rescued Soboma and sped off in their speedboats to their camp. A few minutes later, MEND, in an e-mail to journalists, said its fighters … rescued “one of our field commanders and founding member. [In an operation that lasted less than 30 minutes] …we left with our ultimate prize.” The statement was signed by Jomo Gbomo

Other activities which the group owned up to include the kidnap of eight foreigners from another offshore vessel. The hostages were released 24 hours later. MEND explained that it intended destroying the vessel and did not want more hostages. On 8 May 8 2007, three major oil pipelines, one in Brass and two in Akassa area in Bayelsa State, were attacked, shutting down oil production and cutting power to a facility run by Italian oil company Agip. According to Jomo Gbomo: “Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa State.”On 23 September 2007, Jomo Gbomo also announced that his arrest and was false; and warned that MEND had officially declared war, effective 12 midnight, 23 September 2007, and that they would be commencing “attacks on installations and abduction of expatriates”. This was the very day Henry Okah was arrested at the Luanda International Airport.

On 13 November, MEND fighters attacked Cameroonian soldiers on the disputed Bakassi peninsular, killing more than 20 of them. This almost resulted in a strained bilateral relationship with Cameroon. It would be noted, however, that beside the attack on offshore oil facilities and kidnap of their staff, MEND equally bombed Shell Residential Area along Aba/Port Harcourt expressway, where over 10 cars were mangled beyond recognition. Nobody can say how sophisticated the group’s armoury is. However, it is clear they have acquired modern weaponry, considering their use of explosive devices that could be detonated by remote control or GSM. Such device is also suspected to have been used in the 2 Amphibious Brigade Headquarters, Port Harcourt that was bombed with an explosive planted in a parked car. Not less than three persons were killed. Since the arrest of Okah at the Luanda Airport and his subsequent extradition, there have been threats by MEND asking for his unconditional release.

The attack by the militant group on the Bonga field on 19 June confounded security agencies. A top player in the oil industry told this magazine that Bonga field has an installed capacity of about 200,000 barrels per day and the latest technology was adopted in its construction. Immediately after the attack, MEND sent an e-mail to media houses: “On Thursday, June 19, 2008, at 0045 Hrs, gallant fighters from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) overran the supposedly fortified Bonga offshore oil fields operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company. ”The main computerised control room responsible for coordinating the entire crude oil export

operations from the fields was our main target. Our detonation engineers could not gain access to blow it up, but decided against smoking out the occupants by burning down the facility to avoid loss of life. “However, our next visit will be different as the facility will not be spared. We therefore ask all workers in the Bonga fields to evacuate for their safety as the military can not protect them… ”In order that the Nigerian military does not pass off this humiliating breach as another ‘accident’, an American, Captain Jack Stone from an oil services company, Tidex, has been captured.”  ”This man was supposed to be released in exchange for all Niger Delta hostages being held in northern Nigeria by the federal government. Because the criminals in the government and state security want to use this opportunity to make money from ransom, we have decided he will be released in the coming hours,” MEND said. The organisation claimed it is now arming itself with more powerful explosives and new techniques to destroy additional pipelines in Delta State, calling on government to save face by releasing Henry Okah to partake in a genuine peace process before Nigeria’s oil export reaches zero. It is also ordering oil companies to move out of the area immediately. “We use this opportunity to ask the oil majors to evacuate their expatriate staff from Nigeria until the issues in the Niger Delta have been addressed and resolved,” it said. Meanwhile, the Bonga field has been shut down until a thorough investigation on the attack is carried out by experts.