Nigeria’s white-collar oil union on Thursday urged the acting president to stem rising insecurity, saying that sectarian violence and attacks on oil facilities were hurting the country.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria said in a letter to Goodluck Jonathan that the government had failed to provide security in the country, the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter.
“Insecurity in the country has degenerated to a very high level, hoisting an atmosphere of uncertainty over the safety and security of lives and properties in the country,” the letter said.
“Today, virtually all parts of the country are bedevilled with one crisis or the other.”
The union said that despite the presence of police and troops, sectarian violence between has continued, particularly in the central city of Jos, where rights groups say hundreds of people have died this year.
It also pointed to ongoing unrest in the Niger Delta despite a government amnesty for repentant militants in the oil-rich region.
Around 20,000 fighters laid down arms last year after President Umaru Yar’Adua offered an unconditional pardon to the militants fighting for a fairer share of oil revenue to go the locals.
Jonathan, previously deputy president, took over as acting president in February from Yar’Adua, whose ill health has kept him in a hospital bed for months.
The union said it “rejoiced” at the amnesty, but added that the slow pace of implementation had led to a “resurgence of kidnappings and attacks on our members and oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region,” it said.
The union pointed to incidents including a March bomb blast in the oil city of Warri at a ceremony to mark the amnesty, which killed at least two people, and the killings of two members of the union.
“It is clear that the security agencies lack basic capacity and adequate surveillance, infrastructure to nip these cases in the bud. This situation must not be allowed to continue,” the union’s letter said.