The fragile peace in the Niger Delta seems set for derailment as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, calls off the ceasefire it announced last October
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
There had been several warning signals. But they were all ignored. Finally, the dam broke on Saturday 30 January 2009, with a statement from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, calling off its suspension of the war of attrition with the Federal Government in the region.
In the statement, via e-mail, MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo said: “After careful consideration and extensive consultation, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) today, Saturday, January 30, 2010, has decided to call off a unilateral ceasefire ordered on Sunday, October 25, 2009.
“This ceasefire was ordered in the hope that the government of Nigeria would consider true dialogue founded on a sincere desire to bring justice to the people of the Niger Delta, and true peace to Nigeria.”
But three months on, MEND said, “It is sufficiently clear at this point in time that the government of Nigeria has no intentions of considering the demands made by this group for the control of the resources and land of the Niger Delta to be reverted to the rightful owners, the people of the Niger Delta.”
That same day, MEND made good its warning to resume hostilities when fighters affiliated to it attacked Shell Trans-Ramos pipeline. The attack forced a shutdown of three oil flow stations operated by the Anglo-Dutch energy giant in the restive Niger Delta. The flow stations are at Tunu, Benisede and Opukushi, in the offshore fields of the oil multinational in Bayelsa and Delta states. The combined production capacity of the affected flow stations is about 70,000 barrels of crude per day.
Confirming the shutdown of the flow stations, SPDC’s spokesman, Mr. Tony Okonedo, said: “The Trans-Ramos pipeline was vandalised and we have to isolate the pipeline and shut down three flow stations in order to prevent further damage to the environment and pave the way for the repair of the pipeline…”
On 2 February, MEND, claiming credit for the attack, said: “Today, Tuesday, February 2, 2010, the military Joint Task Force (JTF) in collaboration with Shell, denied the attack on the Shell Trans-Ramos pipeline was an act of sabotage, claiming it was an attempt to steal crude oil. [However] no bunkerer breaches pipelines with explosives as was done in this attack…MEND hereby promises to re-visit the Trans-Ramos pipeline which we attacked in June last year after it has been repaired, as well as other oil facilities around the Niger Delta in the weeks to come…”
Since presidential amnesty was granted to all youths bearing illegal arms who surrendered them between 4 August and 4 October 2009, there have been warning signs that there was trouble in the air. It boiled over on Tuesday 20 October, when repentant militants protesting unpaid allowances crippled social and economic activities in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State. The protesters smashed windscreens of cars and robbed people of their valuables. Banks and others businesses were forced to hurriedly close shop. Those who were not quick enough, especially on Melford Okilo and Ngbi roads and in some other parts of the city, had their business premises vandalised and looted.
The state government, through a press statement from the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Timipre Sylva, Mr. Doifie Ola, tried to play down the enormity of the violence and its security implication by assuring that there was no cause for alarm. “Yenagoa is not an arms collection centre or a payment centre. The amnesty is a programme of Federal Government and we are standing by it; it is a huge success,” he said.
However, the Bayelsa State Secretary of the Action Congress, Mr. Miriki Ebikibina, who witnessed the protest, the fourth in the state since President Umaru Yar’Adua announced the amnesty on 4 August 2009, lashed out at both federal and state governments for their lack of planning. “The neglect and exposure of the people to harassment and intimidation by the repentant militants, at will, shows how desperate the state and the Federal Government were to disarm them without making arrangements for their rehabilitation, reintegration and security for the larger society,” Ebikibina said.
On Wednesday 23 December, six armoured vehicles and four truck-loads of armed policemen were deployed in Amarata, near Yenagoa, to quell agitations by the militants over the non-payment of their stipends. Similarly, on Tuesday 22 December, scores of former militants loyal to Government Tompolo demonstrated outside the guest house where he was staying in Warri. The protesters said they were owed N300,000 ($2000) each, which they were promised in return for surrendering their arms under the presidential amnesty. It took the combined effort of the Joint Task Force and mobile policemen to disperse them. The branch manager of the bank managing the funds and payment of amnesty entitlements, Patrick Ologidi, pleading for more time, said everything was being done to pay them.
Warning that the situation was getting out of hand then, Akinaka Richard, a human rights activist and Head of Port Harcourt-based Grassroots Initiative for Peace and Democracy, said: “The ex-militants are already feeling used and abandoned. Their allowances are not paid as and when due and they are blaming their leaders for their woes.
“The (former militant) leaders themselves are beginning to feel that the government wants to turn their boys against them. Some of the ex-militants feel betrayed by their leaders and the amnesty committee that rehabilitation camps were not provided.”
There was a similar protest in Calabar, Cross River State. The former militants stormed a new generation bank on Mary Slessor Avenue, demanding payment of their entitlements. Customers fled on sighting them. One of the protesters said they had not been paid since they surrendered their arms. Cars and buses were vandalised and the militants held sway for many hours, singing war songs. The bank had no choice but to close for the day. The militants’ action triggered a massive traffic jam in areas of the city where most of the residents had gone to shop for Christmas.
Also, the Joint Revolutionary Council, the umbrella body of ex-militant groups such as MEND, Martyrs Brigade and Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, NDPVF, a few weeks ago had said they were rejecting the work plan of the Presidential Committee on Amnesty, PCA, because it is tied on failed institutions like the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency, SMEDAN, and National Directorate of Employment and National Poverty Alleviation Programme, NAPEP.
“Magnus Kpakol and his bunch sat together to develop a draft document that included a list of non-existent and ill equipped training centres that were to be used as training centres for ex-militants.
“We wish to state very clearly that SMEDAN, NAPEP and NDE are failed institutions and must never be given any role to play in the campaign for reorientation and rehabilitation of the heroic young men of the Niger Delta who have decided to lay down their arms for the sake of peace…”
The JCR also said that an inspection of suggested PCA training centres in Yenagoa, Port Harcourt and Uyo revealed that more than 98 per cent of the computer centres, tailoring centres, cobbler shops, mechanic workshops, etc were non-existent, ill-equipped, non-accredited and unrecognised.
Armed groups claiming to seek a fairer share of oil revenue for locals have since 2006 staged attacks on oil installations in the oil-producing Niger Delta, causing havoc with crude output and international oil prices. At its peak, the attacks slashed Nigeria’s crude production by about one million barrels a day, which saw Angola overtake it as Africa’s top oil producer.
Chief Edwin Clark, foremost Ijaw leader, has called on MEND to stop the hostilities and give the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua a chance to recover and personally push the amnesty programme to its logical end. Whether his call would be heeded will be known in the next few weeks.
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