THE fragile peace in the Niger Delta may be halted with the series of stern warnings yesterday by three militant groups in the restive oil-rich region.
Beginning from tomorrow, the militants have vowed to resume kidnappings and disruption of oil production in the area due to the arrest and detention of former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Ibori in Abuja last Wednesday and arraigned him the next day at a Kaduna High Court for alleged graft of about N9 billion.
The EFCC has, however, given reason why it could not monitor the former governor’s alleged financial fraud.
The Commission puts the blame on the failure of banks to report such proceeds to it Financial Investigation Unit (FIU), which was created through the EFCC Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2004, and designed to inform, online the financial transactions of individuals or groups with financial institutions (banks) above certain threshold amount.
FIU domiciled information feeds the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Customs Service, NDLEA, EFCC, NDIC and other relevant agencies on financial transactions.
Such transactions were initially reported to the Nigeria Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on annual basis before the Act.
However, the banks failed to meet up with the March 2007 deadline accorded them and was shifted to December 2007 due to reported challenges they faced.
The three militants groups, which had threatened fresh attacks on oil workers and installations, are the Niger Delta Survival Front, the Olosa Survival
Force for Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Gomora. They made their views known in three separate statements, but which were jointly released yesterday.
“We will unleash violence on the oil industry in the region if Ibori was not granted bail on Monday. We warned the Federal Government not to treat our threat with levity, as we (are) now fully prepared to embark on a series of actions,” the groups stated.
“We are going to shut all major installations in the Niger Delta, particularly, in Delta State by Monday evening if our highly revered leader (Ibori) was not granted bail by the Federal High Court, Kaduna.
“We advise oil workers to stay at home as from Tuesday unless our former governor was released by Monday.”
The groups’ statements, signed by their leaders, Mr. Ezekiel Jonjon and Mr. Newton Akemetubor, argued that Ibori was not corrupt, as claimed by the EFCC, adding that he used the money available to him as governor for the development of Delta State.
According to them, the arrest of Ibori was not acceptable to them in view of the effort of the former governor made to ensure that peace reigned in the region, adding that his arrest could trigger fresh social unrest in the area.
The militants claimed that the allegation of corruption against Ibori was fabricated by his political rivals in the state, “who felt threatened by his emergence as a leading political figure from the Niger Delta at the federal level.”
It was learnt that militant groups forwarded their statements to the EFCC, the Federal Government and relevant security agencies in the country.
The Guardian learnt that before Ibori’s arrest last week, the Federal Government had reportedly ordered the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, “Operation Restore Hope” to beef up security in the region to avoid disruption of oil facilities.
Intelligence reports had indicated that some individuals were planning to disrupt oil production in the state in reaction to the fate of the former governor.
In the interim, the EFCC had identified the challenges faced by banks in reporting financial crimes to it to include employing and training of compliance officers, technological challenge and deployment of software acquisition alongside sensitisation with local compliance strategy programmes.
Such challenges might have prevented the alert system of the FIU to pick the alleged N9 billion Ibori loot, transacted at different times between March 2004 to February 2007 alongside four others – Udoamaka Okoronkwo, Mer Engineering Nigeria Limited, Bainenox Limited and Sagicon Nigeria Limited.
However, an official of the EFCC disclosed that some of the banks are now complying. “Oceanic Bank and United Bank of Africa, among others, only recently had the acquisition of the software installed,” it said.
The official explained that the transactions alleged were recorded before FIU became operational in some of the banks, adding that it has not been decided if there would be deadline extension or otherwise to defaulting banks.
On whether Ibori did not transfer money since the two year-operational period of the Unit, the EFCC source revealed that it was a difficult position to ascertain.
“But since the banks reported their difficulty, it was acceptable that they needed time to fulfil some of the conditions required to put the system in place,” the source said.
On other ex-governors whose whereabouts are yet to be ascertained, the official said the Commission would take its time and handle the cases as they come.