Militants threaten Bonny output

Covered in magic charms and brandishing machine guns, fighters from Okoloma Ikpangi — a Bonny Island faction which claims allegiance to the main militant group MEND — said they were ready to strike at the heart of Africa’s biggest oil industry.

Bonny Island is home to an export terminal operated by Royal Dutch Shell which produces around 400,000 barrels per day when operations are normal. Other partners include France’s Total and Italy’s ENI. It also houses the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas facility, one of Africa’s biggest single industrial projects, whose stakeholders include Shell, Total and ENI.

Speaking to Reuters at a camp nestled in the island’s mangrove creeks, one of Okoloma Ikpangi’s commanders said the group had more than 180 fighters and that youths exasperated by a lack of development in their community were joining every day.

He said oil facilities on Bonny were within easy striking distance of local communities.

“To attack these multinationals is just at our pick. It is not going to cost us anything. We just wake up one morning, walk down there and cause any havoc we like,” the camp commander, who gave his name as Boma, said.

“We are going to bring down the production process to the barest minimum and we are going to achieve it very soon,” he said, his face covered by a black balaclava, a string of machine gun rounds draped across his shoulders.

Security experts say various armed groups operate under the franchise of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose campaign of violent sabotage has cut Nigeria’s oil output by a fifth since early 2006.

MEND — which said separately on Wednesday that it planned to attack major oil pipelines in the delta in the next 30 days — confirmed in an email to Reuters that Boma’s group were “legitimate fighters”.

NO MILITARY SOLUTION

A private security contractor in the oil industry said Okoloma Ikpangi was increasingly active on Bonny, strategically located at the mouth of the Bonny River in Rivers state, and that they had killed several soldiers in a clash last month.

“They have demonstrated their ability to carry out their threats,” the security source said, asking not to be named.

Fears of supply disruptions from Nigeria’s oil industry have helped push global energy prices to record highs, putting President Umaru Yar’Adua under pressure to calm the region.

His administration has said it will address the root causes by developing infrastructure but has also said it will not tolerate the presence of armed groups on its territory.

A senior military source said hundreds of troops had deployed in Rivers state and neighbouring Bayelsa to try to find the killers of three soldiers whose bullet-riddled bodies were found floating in the creeks on Monday.

Boma warned the military to pull out.

“They can’t bring a solution to the problem … The more presence of military we are feeling, this problem is going to escalate. If the government is wise, they should evacuate all those military present,” he said.

The government has been trying to set up a peace summit to discuss the unrest, but MEND has said it will not attend. Meanwhile, frustration is growing among poor villagers who complain their land and water have been polluted by half a century of oil extraction.

“In our community there is nothing like a tertiary (education) institution, there’s no good water to drink, we get tankers that carry sewage to get water for us,” Boma said.

“After this exploitation, our people remain in penury. We have endured for years, now we say no,” he said.