posted
I hope these guys hurry up and bury BiafraNigeria. I'm tired of all this talk talk, no action. Knowing Obasanjo he'll send B52 into the area since it happens to be in the South. We're watching with keen interest.
Vanguard By Emma Amaize Monday, December 30, 2002
BENIN CITY— AGAINST the backdrop of reports that the Federal Government is beefing up security in the Niger-Delta ahead of tomorrow’s ultimatum given to President Olusegun Obasanjo by a coalition of Niger-Delta youths to sign the oil dichotomy bill, notable leaders from the region have warned on the grave consequences of using military force to suppress the legitimate demand of the people. The consensus opinion of leaders spoken to, including the former military Vice-President, Admiral August Aikhomu, First Republic Information Minister and deputy national chairman of the South- South Peoples Conference (SSOPEC), Chief Edwin Clark, Mr Steve Buwadah and former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) governorship aspirant in Edo State, Brigadier-General Idada Ikponmwen (rtd) was that it may lead to a quick disintegration of the country.
Admiral Aikhomu told Vanguard that the question of signing the oil dichotomy bill had nothing to do with troops, asserting that "if he (Obasanjo) wants to use troops to subjugate the will of the people, he is doomed to fail and moreover, he had been well-advised by stakeholders to sign the bill and avert avoidable crisis.
"By amassing troops, if it is true", Aikhomu said, "Obasanjo should be made to understand that his troops cannot go against the will of the people and his executive might cannot take him anywhere. The people of the Niger Delta are resolute on this matter. He should sign the bill and save himself the trouble."
Itsekiri opinion leader, Mr. Buwa-Udah who insisted that the only way out was for Obasanjo to sign the bill advised the President not to start a war that he would not be able to finish. "No nation survives two civil wars. If he is not correctly reading the handwriting already written on the wall, that is too bad. He should not make the mistake at all.
"In any case, we, in the Niger Delta are already used to the use of military to intimidate us. If he is going to use arm-twisting tactics, that is his funeral. He can use all security apparatus to oppress the people because of their God-given resources but he will fail. The troops he is sending do not know our terrain and before he would know what is happening, the alarm would have blown", he said.
In a clearly angry voice, Buwa-Udah asserted, "infact, I want to encourage him to take such a foolish step but let it be known that as long as the will of the people prevails, he will fail. The moment he brings in the military into this matter, that will be the end of Nigeria."
Chief Clark simply told Vanguard in an interview in Warri that ‘the people of Niger Delta has witnessed too many military invasions of their plundered region by the Federal Government and are not afraid of them but the Federal Government should not escalate the bad situation by deploying troops to the region because our youths gave Obasanjo December 31 ultimatum to sign the bill because it will be counter-productive."
Ikponmwen also stated that signing the bill was not a military affair but a constitutional duty which Obasanjo must perform because he had no justifiable reason to withhold his assent.
A Benin-based legal practitioner, Mr. Itse Wilkie told Vanguard that "the dispatch of military men for security of oil installations by the federal government will only further aggravate the hostility and anger of the youths and the entire people of the Niger Delta. Rather than threaten the people with force, the president will do better by signing the oil bill," he added.
Vanguard reported exclusively December 27 that the federal government was beefing up security at oil installations in the Niger Delta ahead tomorrow’s ultimatum by youths drawn from Isoko, Urhobo, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Afemai, Esan, Ibibio, Ikwerre, Ogoni, Oron, Kalabari, Ogbia and Edo ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta.
___________________ Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos Posts: 2644 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Apr 2001
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The Ijaw and Urhobo people are still castigating us for fighting for Biafra. This time, they are going to be the ones at the front in any war that they start. I am a proud member of the INC - Ibibio National Congress. Let me tell you, we cannot trust the Ijaw or the Urhobo man to watch our back if war comes. They only want Niger-Delta for control of oil and for telling us that we are not core Niger-Delta.
If Aluko wants ********************1.com linked from BNW, Aluko should link BNW at ********************1.com Posts: 66 | From: Kalamazoo, Michigan | Registered: Nov 2001
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It will certainly be an interesting war if people like the Igbo hater Clement Ikpatt are will be counting on support from Igbo people. I can see that there will be a lot of switching of sides by Nd'Igbo from pro-Biafra to pro-One-Nigeria, just to teach the Ikpatt's of "Niger-Delta" a lesson. Posts: 199 | Registered: Mar 2001
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USMAN KADIRI, your life is predicated on loafing off other people, especially the Niger Delta. I say shot your goddmaned parasitic/reppellent mouth [stinky]and just state some facts. Say what is in your goddmned mind in paragraph not a statement. Or do you have to consult with the dead ringer, prophet Mohammed before you speak in volumes?
Hail Biafra
[ January 01, 2003, 04:21 AM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
Posts: 1685 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote: I hope these guys hurry up and bury BiafraNigeria. I'm tired of all this talk talk, no action. Knowing Obasanjo he'll send B52 into the area since it happens to be in the South. We're watching with keen interest.--Ohafia Udumeze posted December 30, 2002
Shell operates a number of installations in the Niger Delta Nine foreign oil workers have been seized by armed militants from a barge in Nigeria's Niger Delta. The group, including three Americans, two Thais, two Egyptians, a Briton and a Filipino, were on a pipelaying barge.
Shell's Forcados export terminal was also set on fire, and oil loading there has been suspended.
The attacks come a day after a militant commander told the BBC his group was declaring "total war" on all foreign oil interests in the Delta.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta gave oil companies and their employees until midnight on Friday night to leave the region.
In an e-mail quoted by Reuters news agency after Saturday's attack, the group threatened action "on a grander scale".
"We decided in response to pleas from our kin in these communities, to carry out strikes against oil and gas facilities in Delta state," the group said.
Dawn raid
The attack came at 0500 (0400GMT) on Saturday, on a barge off the Forcados oil facility.
Nigeria's oil hope and despair
Two soldiers from the military force which protects oil workers in the delta were reportedly injured.
"These individuals and facilities were well guarded by a large number of soldiers who resisted for an embarrassingly short period before escaping to ensure their personal safeties," said the militants in their e-mail statement.
The men were working for Willbros, a US engineering firm which is a Shell subcontractor, in the Forcados River, 50km (30 miles) west of Warri.
Forcados, located 5km (three miles) offshore and pumping 380,000 barrels per day, is one of the two main export facilities operated by Shell in Nigeria.
Damage caused by the attack is still being assessed, but Shell has reportedly begun shutting down oilfields which feed the platform.
Wealth control
On Wednesday the Nigerian military used a helicopter to hit barges it said were being used by militants to smuggle stolen oil.
The rebels recently blew up two oil pipelines, held four foreign oil workers hostage and sabotaged two major oilfields.
The group wants greater control of the oil wealth produced on their land.
Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports, but despite its oil wealth, many Nigerians live in abject poverty.
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