Untainted News.....
| Copyrights © 2008 www.africansearchlight.com. P.O. Box 1566 Landover, MD 20785 U.S.A e-mail editor@africansearchlight.com All rights reserved. check mail |
| Media Links GRAPHIC | CAPE-TIMES | GUARDIAN | THE PUNCH| NIGERIA TRIBUNE | THE SUN |THISDAY | VANGUARD | INDEPENDENT |THE NEWS |HUHUONLINE |
10 years of Democracy-Niger Delta and the Powers of Petrocracy
By Olufemi Soneye /Posted Saturday July 4, 2009
“Oil is the dictators’ dream and their weapon, their means of escape from accountability. Oil wealth comes
to the rulers, they dispose of it, they distribute it to cronies, they punish and overwhelm would be
challengers at home, and they use it to sustain adventures at home and abroad way beyond the limits of
their societies”. Fouad Ajami
May 1998 in Ondo state a densely populated riverine area in south west Nigeria, two youths were killed on
chevron oil company property by members of security forces transported to the property by Chevron’s oil
officials in a bid to remove about two-hundred peaceful protesters. The protesters were demanding
compensation for environmental damage caused by canals cut for Chevron’s oil water ways to the sea.
1999 two communities in Delta State were attacked by soldiers, using helicopter and boats
commandeered from a facility operated by Chevron Oil, following an alleged confrontation that took place
at a nearby Chevron drilling rig. More than fifty people were killed in that incident. Chevron Oil at that time
asserted that it had no choice in allowing its equipment to be used that way. The company did not issue
any public protest for the killings, nor stated steps it will take to avoid similar incident in the future.
June 1999 the community of Choba was attacked by soldiers, in order to disperse protesters outside the
gates of Willbros Nigeria Limited, the subsidiary of an American pipeline construction company with
administrative offices in Oklahoma. Due to crisis between the communities of Choba and Willbros Ltd,
there has been discontent amongst them with Willbros being considered as an inconsiderate neighbor not
interested in promoting relations in the community. Choba youths decided to stage several sit-ins to block
the entrance to Willbros office site.
September 1999 a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Choba community and
Willbros Ltd. Choba community was represented by thirty-four elders, in the presence of Rivers State
government representative, in the memoranda Willbros agreed to build a secondary school, employ
Choba youths and repair damaged infrastructures.
October 1999 8 youths dissatisfied with the speed of implementation of the agreement once again
blocked the company’s entrance preventing anyone from entering or leaving the premises. The next day
Rivers state swift operation squad a police successor unit to the dreaded Para-military operation flush
established by military regimes and based in Port-Harcourt invited elders of Choba community, three
elders were sent, at the meeting Willbros Ltd manager J.B Brown signed an agreement to begin employing
one hundred persons from Choba community, and in return the community would remove obstructions
from the company’s premises, the agreement was signed in the presence of the swift response
commander, Goodwill Obielum.
The three Choba elders returned, and reported what had happened, they had not, however, had the
authority of other signatories to the September agreement to modify its terms or to negotiate for the end
of the demonstrations, thus the blockade and peaceful demonstrations continued.
October 28 1999 soldiers and mobile policemen invaded Choba, dispersed the demonstrators at the
Willbros gates, killed four people, injured hundred more, proceeded to the town demolished properties,
over 65 women were raped with graphic photographs of uniform men forcing women to bend over and
physically assaulting them were explicitly shown in many newspapers at that time.
November 1999 in response to the killing of twelve police officers by a gang of youths in Odi-Bayelsa
state, Former president Olusegun Obasanjo sent the combined troops of the Nigerian Army and Mobile
policemen to the area... The operation was undertaken by military personnel from the second amphibious
brigade based in Port-Harcourt, with a battalion of over 1,000 soldiers transported to the region in more
than twenty-vehicles including several armored personal carriers (APC’S) mounted with machine guns,
three 81mm mortars and four 105mm howitzers were used to shell the town. The troops upon entering the
town engaged the youths responsible for the deaths of the policemen to a brief exchange of fire and
proceeded to raze the town. Every single building in the town was demolished except a bank and the local
church. Several unarmed civilians were killed. At the end of the mayhem graffiti in Odi written by soldiers
suggests that the exercise was a punitive expedition against people challenging government’s authority.
June 2001, Friday Nwiido a native of Yorla in the Ogoni area of the Niger-Delta was fatally shot by
members of the Nigerian Police Force at Baen in Khana Local Government Area in Rivers State. Nwiido a
member of the oil land owner’s family in Yorla had been working for Shell Petroleum Company as a
security guard, he was posted to the site of the April 29, 2001 major oil spill from Shell well head that
spread oil fountain over a wide area damaging farmlands and rivers in the region.
Nwiido and his fellow security guards on several occasions pleaded with officials of Shell petroleum to
provide additional guards to protect oil facility and equipments from armed vandals that have terrorized
the area, after all efforts failed they allegedly had a dispute with Shell over the matter and in the process
seized a Shell vehicle in order to present their case.
The oil company invited police officials to the community, they harassed villagers, shot tear gas canisters
and demanded that Nwiido be produced, he was shot as he gave himself up, and villagers in frantic effort
to save his life rushed him to a nearby clinic where he died.
January 2002 is a month villagers of Liama, in Bayelsa state would never forget in a hurry. Members of
the Nigerian Navy personnel undertook a reprisal raid following the seizure of boats and nine oil company
employees, razing the village, killing four people and destroying over thirty buildings. It started in August
2001 the Brass Local Government area officials convened a meeting between representatives of Egwema
and Liama villages and officials of the Chinese national petroleum corporation, CNPC, to inform them of
the seismic exploration that would be carried out by CNPC in their communities.
Further meetings were held both in Liama and Egwema between community leaders and officials of CNPC
with representatives of government security forces at which a memorandum of understanding was
reached and the benefits to the communities were outlined.
CNPC commenced work in October 2001 without fulfilling any part of the memorandum of understanding,
after series of failed attempts to get them to
Adhere to the agreements, in December persons from Egwema community seized several boats belonging
to CNPC, as a result of which CNPC officials implemented some form of the agreement, including the
employment of Egwema youths and provision of a clinic.
Accordingly Liama community resolved to seize company property as a bargaining ploy in a manner
similar to the community of Egwema
Early in the morning of January 21,2002 after a community meeting at which a decision was collectively
decided upon, fifteen youths from Liama seized four boats and abducted nine Nigerian employees of
CNPC that were working inside water by the community. As they were in the process of bringing the CNPC
personnel and boats back to the village, naval marine commandos attached to the Italian oil giant Agip
fired shots at the boat killing two of the youths and injuring three others, the navy pursued the youths to
the village with automatic weapons, but did not land.
Shortly after the abductions, the secretary to the Brass local government went to the naval base and
pleaded with the naval authorities to refrain from entering the village, he assured them of securing the
release of the CNPC crew and boats.
The secretary therefore went to the village and secured the release of the crew men, and once they were
released he took them to the naval base, and promised to return the boats the next day, January 22nd
which he did. On January 23rd the navy sent for the community leaders in a view to address all remaining
issues. Five elders were sent namely Elder Atmidigi Dokubo, Chief Francis Benjamin, Mr. Moses Brown,
Chief Joseph Iba and Chief Oyafiakumo on arrival at the naval base at the Agip oil terminal, they were
detained and transferred to the Ahoada prisons and charged with armed robbery.
January 24, the navy came to the community in four boats, firing indiscriminately with automatic weapons;
two people were killed on the river shore with fifteen people sustaining gun shot injuries.
August 2002, several hundred women from various tribes in Delta state protested peacefully outside shell
petroleum premises claiming pollution to their rivers and aquatic lives. During the protest Shell officials
invited soldiers from the 7th amphibious battalion based in Warri, during this process the women were
badly wounded and at least two women were shot.
April 2003, during the electoral process to the legislative house in Cross-River state policemen opened
fire on a congregation of catholic faithful during the Good-Friday procession, because the church showed
support for a candidate from a rival party, more disturbing was the presence of the secretary to the Local
Government in company of the irate police officers.
June 2004, over 15 persons were killed by troops of Joint Task Force (Operation Restore Hope) in Delta
state. The attack was carried out at Ogodobri a riverside settlement area. The task force led by Brig.Gen
Elias Zamani a week earlier carried out a similar attack on Pere-Otugbene in Warri-South West area killing
about 25 people in one swoop. Those killed were given a mass burial at the Warri cemetery
May 2009 Joint Task Force, JTF team attacked Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta state shooting sporadically
killing several people. Buildings and properties were destroyed with over a thousand people displaced.
The operation by JTF was so intense that pets and animals were not left out.
By Olufemi Soneye /Posted Saturday July 4, 2009
“Oil is the dictators’ dream and their weapon, their means of escape from accountability. Oil wealth comes
to the rulers, they dispose of it, they distribute it to cronies, they punish and overwhelm would be
challengers at home, and they use it to sustain adventures at home and abroad way beyond the limits of
their societies”. Fouad Ajami
May 1998 in Ondo state a densely populated riverine area in south west Nigeria, two youths were killed on
chevron oil company property by members of security forces transported to the property by Chevron’s oil
officials in a bid to remove about two-hundred peaceful protesters. The protesters were demanding
compensation for environmental damage caused by canals cut for Chevron’s oil water ways to the sea.
1999 two communities in Delta State were attacked by soldiers, using helicopter and boats
commandeered from a facility operated by Chevron Oil, following an alleged confrontation that took place
at a nearby Chevron drilling rig. More than fifty people were killed in that incident. Chevron Oil at that time
asserted that it had no choice in allowing its equipment to be used that way. The company did not issue
any public protest for the killings, nor stated steps it will take to avoid similar incident in the future.
June 1999 the community of Choba was attacked by soldiers, in order to disperse protesters outside the
gates of Willbros Nigeria Limited, the subsidiary of an American pipeline construction company with
administrative offices in Oklahoma. Due to crisis between the communities of Choba and Willbros Ltd,
there has been discontent amongst them with Willbros being considered as an inconsiderate neighbor not
interested in promoting relations in the community. Choba youths decided to stage several sit-ins to block
the entrance to Willbros office site.
September 1999 a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Choba community and
Willbros Ltd. Choba community was represented by thirty-four elders, in the presence of Rivers State
government representative, in the memoranda Willbros agreed to build a secondary school, employ
Choba youths and repair damaged infrastructures.
October 1999 8 youths dissatisfied with the speed of implementation of the agreement once again
blocked the company’s entrance preventing anyone from entering or leaving the premises. The next day
Rivers state swift operation squad a police successor unit to the dreaded Para-military operation flush
established by military regimes and based in Port-Harcourt invited elders of Choba community, three
elders were sent, at the meeting Willbros Ltd manager J.B Brown signed an agreement to begin employing
one hundred persons from Choba community, and in return the community would remove obstructions
from the company’s premises, the agreement was signed in the presence of the swift response
commander, Goodwill Obielum.
The three Choba elders returned, and reported what had happened, they had not, however, had the
authority of other signatories to the September agreement to modify its terms or to negotiate for the end
of the demonstrations, thus the blockade and peaceful demonstrations continued.
October 28 1999 soldiers and mobile policemen invaded Choba, dispersed the demonstrators at the
Willbros gates, killed four people, injured hundred more, proceeded to the town demolished properties,
over 65 women were raped with graphic photographs of uniform men forcing women to bend over and
physically assaulting them were explicitly shown in many newspapers at that time.
November 1999 in response to the killing of twelve police officers by a gang of youths in Odi-Bayelsa
state, Former president Olusegun Obasanjo sent the combined troops of the Nigerian Army and Mobile
policemen to the area... The operation was undertaken by military personnel from the second amphibious
brigade based in Port-Harcourt, with a battalion of over 1,000 soldiers transported to the region in more
than twenty-vehicles including several armored personal carriers (APC’S) mounted with machine guns,
three 81mm mortars and four 105mm howitzers were used to shell the town. The troops upon entering the
town engaged the youths responsible for the deaths of the policemen to a brief exchange of fire and
proceeded to raze the town. Every single building in the town was demolished except a bank and the local
church. Several unarmed civilians were killed. At the end of the mayhem graffiti in Odi written by soldiers
suggests that the exercise was a punitive expedition against people challenging government’s authority.
June 2001, Friday Nwiido a native of Yorla in the Ogoni area of the Niger-Delta was fatally shot by
members of the Nigerian Police Force at Baen in Khana Local Government Area in Rivers State. Nwiido a
member of the oil land owner’s family in Yorla had been working for Shell Petroleum Company as a
security guard, he was posted to the site of the April 29, 2001 major oil spill from Shell well head that
spread oil fountain over a wide area damaging farmlands and rivers in the region.
Nwiido and his fellow security guards on several occasions pleaded with officials of Shell petroleum to
provide additional guards to protect oil facility and equipments from armed vandals that have terrorized
the area, after all efforts failed they allegedly had a dispute with Shell over the matter and in the process
seized a Shell vehicle in order to present their case.
The oil company invited police officials to the community, they harassed villagers, shot tear gas canisters
and demanded that Nwiido be produced, he was shot as he gave himself up, and villagers in frantic effort
to save his life rushed him to a nearby clinic where he died.
January 2002 is a month villagers of Liama, in Bayelsa state would never forget in a hurry. Members of
the Nigerian Navy personnel undertook a reprisal raid following the seizure of boats and nine oil company
employees, razing the village, killing four people and destroying over thirty buildings. It started in August
2001 the Brass Local Government area officials convened a meeting between representatives of Egwema
and Liama villages and officials of the Chinese national petroleum corporation, CNPC, to inform them of
the seismic exploration that would be carried out by CNPC in their communities.
Further meetings were held both in Liama and Egwema between community leaders and officials of CNPC
with representatives of government security forces at which a memorandum of understanding was
reached and the benefits to the communities were outlined.
CNPC commenced work in October 2001 without fulfilling any part of the memorandum of understanding,
after series of failed attempts to get them to
Adhere to the agreements, in December persons from Egwema community seized several boats belonging
to CNPC, as a result of which CNPC officials implemented some form of the agreement, including the
employment of Egwema youths and provision of a clinic.
Accordingly Liama community resolved to seize company property as a bargaining ploy in a manner
similar to the community of Egwema
Early in the morning of January 21,2002 after a community meeting at which a decision was collectively
decided upon, fifteen youths from Liama seized four boats and abducted nine Nigerian employees of
CNPC that were working inside water by the community. As they were in the process of bringing the CNPC
personnel and boats back to the village, naval marine commandos attached to the Italian oil giant Agip
fired shots at the boat killing two of the youths and injuring three others, the navy pursued the youths to
the village with automatic weapons, but did not land.
Shortly after the abductions, the secretary to the Brass local government went to the naval base and
pleaded with the naval authorities to refrain from entering the village, he assured them of securing the
release of the CNPC crew and boats.
The secretary therefore went to the village and secured the release of the crew men, and once they were
released he took them to the naval base, and promised to return the boats the next day, January 22nd
which he did. On January 23rd the navy sent for the community leaders in a view to address all remaining
issues. Five elders were sent namely Elder Atmidigi Dokubo, Chief Francis Benjamin, Mr. Moses Brown,
Chief Joseph Iba and Chief Oyafiakumo on arrival at the naval base at the Agip oil terminal, they were
detained and transferred to the Ahoada prisons and charged with armed robbery.
January 24, the navy came to the community in four boats, firing indiscriminately with automatic weapons;
two people were killed on the river shore with fifteen people sustaining gun shot injuries.
August 2002, several hundred women from various tribes in Delta state protested peacefully outside shell
petroleum premises claiming pollution to their rivers and aquatic lives. During the protest Shell officials
invited soldiers from the 7th amphibious battalion based in Warri, during this process the women were
badly wounded and at least two women were shot.
April 2003, during the electoral process to the legislative house in Cross-River state policemen opened
fire on a congregation of catholic faithful during the Good-Friday procession, because the church showed
support for a candidate from a rival party, more disturbing was the presence of the secretary to the Local
Government in company of the irate police officers.
June 2004, over 15 persons were killed by troops of Joint Task Force (Operation Restore Hope) in Delta
state. The attack was carried out at Ogodobri a riverside settlement area. The task force led by Brig.Gen
Elias Zamani a week earlier carried out a similar attack on Pere-Otugbene in Warri-South West area killing
about 25 people in one swoop. Those killed were given a mass burial at the Warri cemetery
May 2009 Joint Task Force, JTF team attacked Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta state shooting sporadically
killing several people. Buildings and properties were destroyed with over a thousand people displaced.
The operation by JTF was so intense that pets and animals were not left out.
Nigeria Army Niger-Delta Militants