The recent federal government crackdown on militants in the Niger Delta, which led to the arrest of about 100 of them weekend is currently sending jitters through the nations’ oil and gas industry with fears of possible reprisal attacks.
The fears come as the Joint Military Task Force which raided parts of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to hunt for militants said those with whom they have established cases of involvement in criminality among the arrested are to be handed over to the police today.
Industry sources yesterday confirmed that oil majors in the country have begun to brace up in anticipation of more violent attacks. A top official of one of the multinational oil firms told THISDAY last night that the force-for-force order given by President Olusegun Obasanjo last week may result in more violence against workers in the oil and gas industry, which government forces may not be able to curtail.
“If the federal government armed forces go all out against the militants in the already charged Niger Delta region, an all out bout of violence and bloodshed may result and the oil companies and their staff will be directly on the receiving end,” the official stated.
He said government’s swift change in its approach to violence in the region may be too sudden for the militants to adjust and this may blow off the lid and give way for unbridled violence and bloodshed.
Meanwhile, the federal government troops at the weekend arrested about 100 people in a search for militants suspected to have abducted oil industry workers.
Government forces has set up roadblocks around Port Harcourt since the federal government order was made last week. The troops began searching neighborhoods and houses for clues that will lead to the arrest of suspected militants.
Army spokesman, Major Sagir Musa said no fewer that 100 people were arrested but didn’t provide details about their connection with the abductions. “After a careful analysis of the security situation, we will swoop on the creeks by land and air,” he said.
The Niger Delta has been rocked by series of kidnappings – 15 in the past two weeks – that led President Obasanjo to declare a clamp-down, last week.
Ten hostages have been released unharmed, but five remained unaccounted for. Hostages taken by militants looking for ransom are rarely harmed and most kidnappings end peacefully.
Poland’s foreign ministry said weekend that it was “making all efforts” to secure the release of a Polish oil mining engineer kidnapped from a nightclub last Sunday.
Poland’s ambassador to Nigeria, Grzegorz Walinski, assured his country men back home that the police know where the Pole and other foreigners abducted were being kept.
Friday night, a German hostage was released to Nigerian authorities, Rivers State official, Bletyn Wikina said. The man was taken August 3 from a makeshift checkpoint by gunmen wearing military fatigues.
Wikina did not say if a ransom was paid, and it was unclear if the release was linked to the campaign against militants. A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on details of the release.
Militant attacks have cut Nigeria’s daily oil production by nearly a quarter from its normal 2.6 million barrels. The country is Africa’s biggest oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier of crude oil to the US.
Meanwhile, the Joint Military Task Force which raided parts of Port Harcourt, Rivers State to hunt for militants has said that those they have established cases of involvement in criminality among the arrested are to be handed over to the police today.
Although the Army Spokesman, Major Musa Segir who told THISDAY of the plans to hand them over to the police did not state the number of those involved, he however said they have already released those who were able to establish their innocence.
Segir assured that the raid would be a continuous exercise in the state until militants were flushed out, adding that they would repeat the exercise wherever security report indicates the militants were hiding.
Asked what has become of the team that raided the Iloabuchi area on Friday, he replied that they withdrew them immediately they finished the raid which produced results.
Although sources put the number of those arrested at above 2,000, Sagir insisted they were not more than 150 out of which those that convinced them they were not involved have been released.
He also refused to give an insight into how the operations was planned and the shape future ones would take but said what should interest the public is that they would no longer be harrassed by hoodlums.
The Joint Task Force had Friday, rolled equipment and men into the Iloabuchi, Njemanze and Abonema wharf area, said to be a haven for miscreants and in the process, arrested many people who were taken away for interrogation.
Those arrested were made to sit on bare floor and surrounded by security men pending their evacuation to the barracks for interrogation.
The Task Force had described the raid as a huge success since no life was lost while the feeble resistance put up by the hoodlums were easily overcome and their arrests effected.
The raid is in compliance with the Presidential directive to the military to combat the spate of bank robberies, kidnaps and other anti-social behaviours in the volatile region.