Political attack kills several in oil delta

Supporters of Timi Alaibe, who quit as presidential adviser on the Niger Delta last month to run for the governorship of Bayelsa state, were attacked during a reception to welcome him back from the capital Abuja, witnesses said.

“When we arrived for the reception, we started hearing gunshots and vehicles being damaged, and the gunmen kept advancing towards the crowd,” one eye-witness said, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Initial reports said two people were killed by attackers armed with guns and machetes, but witnesses later said they believed four people died and two were critically injured.

“I can confirm there were some skirmishes at his home in Opokuma this evening. It’s an attack we’re still investigating,” Bayelsa state police spokesman Eguavoen Emokpae said.

Africa’s most populous nation has been rocked by pockets of violence around the country in recent weeks and there are fears of further unrest as it prepares for presidential, parliamentary and state government elections in April.

The Niger Delta, home to the continent’s biggest oil and gas industry, is a potential flashpoint and Bayelsa — President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state — is particularly volatile.

Two bombs exploded during a political rally there just over a week ago.

The Niger Delta is home to thousands of former militants, responsible for years of kidnapping and attacks on oil facilities, who are meant to be undergoing retraining and reintegration following a 2009 government amnesty.

But the region remains awash with weapons and many of the armed gangs behind the unrest were originally sponsored by politicians who used them to help rig elections and intimidate voters. There are fears history will repeat itself.

BITTER RIVALRY

There is a bitter rivalry between Alaibe, who was the main man on the ground responsible for implementing the amnesty, and Bayelsa governor Timipre Sylva, who saw himself politically overshadowed by Alaibe’s success with the programme.

Alaibe quit to challenge Sylva for the governorship.

Beyond local politics, there are also fears of unrest in the oil region if Jonathan — the first head of state from the Ijaw ethnic group, the largest in the Niger Delta — fails to win ruling party primaries next week ahead of the April polls.

Jonathan’s candidacy is controversial because he is from the mostly Christian south and some say a pact in the ruling party on power sharing among the country’s main regions mean the next leader should be from the predominantly Muslim north.

There has been violence elsewhere in the country.

A New Year’s Eve bomb at a popular market close to an army barracks in the capital Abuja killed four people a week after a series of co-ordinated blasts and subsequent clashes killed 80 in the central city of Jos.

The Jos attacks were claimed by a radical Islamist sect from the remote northeast, while there has been no claim of responsibility for the Abuja attack, but many analysts believe the violence was aimed at undermining Jonathan.

A re-run of a governorship election in Delta state, which neighbours Bayelsa, passed without major unrest on Thursday, although the defeated candidate complained of irregularities.

Jonathan said the success of that vote suggested Nigeria was on course for credible elections in April.