A RATHER alarming twist was yesterday introduced to the crisis in the Niger Delta region as two separate massive car bomb explosions rocked the facilities of two oil conglomerates – Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Agip Oil Company.
Also yesterday, the photographs of four kidnapped foreign oil workers were posted on the web by a militant group.
The hostages are Ahmed Saliba, a Lebanese and three Italians, namely Cosma Russo Damiano, Roberto Dieghi and Franco Arena, (pictured left).
Shortly after the explosions, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which had been lying low for a long time, claimed responsibility. In e-mails sent to local and foreign media houses yesterday, the Movement described what the bombs were made of, the mode of exploding them and repeated its demands for the ceasation of attacks.
The first car bomb exploded around 1.00 p.m. yesterday at the Shell Club car park causing extensive damage to the automobiles in the facility.
The blast, witnesses told The Guardian, occurred a few metres away from where an expatriate worker who was making a phone call.
The impact of the explosion was so massive that it rocked the Club House and several residential buildings, which were around 500 metres away.
When The Guardian visited the scene in Port Harcourt yesterday, one of the cars suspected to have been packed with the explosions was severely mangled.
The car, which somersaulted several times due to the impact, was also severely burnt with four others.
Several other cars parked near them also had their windscreens shattered.
Though the police did not allow journalists access to the Club House, The Guardian was reliably informed that part of the building’s window facing the park were destroyed as well.
Apprehensive that there might be other explosives planted within the area, the management of the company hurriedly ordered the closure of the Club House and cordoned it so that bomb experts from the Rivers State Police Command could comb the area.
A horrified Shell worker explained that “those of us in the Club House were not allowed to leave immediately because there was this fear that explosives might have been planted all over the place. Everybody inside here had to run for safety. I ran towards the football field for safety.”
Well armed policemen from the state command cordoned the car park and prevented anyone from getting close. Even Shell workers who had come to retrieve their cars and bike around the park were forced to go back.
Efforts to reach officials of the company to comment on the incident proved abortive. The other explosion however erupted between the fence separating the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and the Nigeria Agip Oil Company on the road leading to Eagle Island, also in Port Harcourt.
MEND has claimed responsibility for the blasts.
The militant group yesterday also warned all companies in the area to steer clear of all facilities there.
This is as strict security measures have been put in place at the Shell Residential Area, Rumukurosi along the Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway.
Vehicles coming in and out of the premises were also subjected to thorough scrutiny.
The Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, confirmed the explosions, saying they that occurred as a result of car bomb.
She explained that the police have started investigation aimed at unraveling those behind the explosion.
MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, in the e-mail claimed the group planted three car bombs. According to him, one of the car bombs planted was not exploded because, in their words “the operative in one location reported a concentration of civilians at his location and that bombing was aborted at the very last minute to prevent loss of innocent lives”.
Gbomo said the Shell and Agip bombs were triggered by cell phones and were a cocktail of military and commercial explosives. He further stated that attacks against oil industry targets would increase and be carried out without warning and with extreme ruthlessness.
“We are impervious to the unfolding political drama in Nigeria and still have as our goal, resource control for the Niger Delta. Until this and every single one of our demands is met, the Nigerian government and oil industry will persistently bear the brunt of our rage,” he further warned.
He warned that all hostages seized “in our attack on the Agip facility in brass will be held indefinitely. They are in big trouble! The possible release of these individuals is directly tied to the release of hostages of Niger delta origin in Nigerian government hands. We will capture more very soon until we have in our hands enough to trade with the Nigerian government.”
The expartriates in the custody of MEND are Francese Arena, Cosma Russo, Roberto Dieghi ( all Italians) and Imad Saliba of Lebanon.
The group also released photographs of the captives.
MEND’s other demans are the release of the impeached governor of Bayelsa State and currently being tried for money laundering, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the self-styled leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, the payment by SPDC of a court-awarded $1.5 billion environmental damages to Ijaw areas.