OWN CORRESPONDENT, Warri | Sunday 10.00pm.
YOUTHS from the Ijaw community in the Niger Delta stepped up attacks on a rival group this weekend, raiding their ancestral home, kidnapping residents and seizing police weapons, witnesses said on Sunday.
Ode-Itsekiri, the traditional birthplace of the Itsekiri people of the Niger Delta, was razed in a pre-dawn attack on Saturday by heavily armed Ijaw youths, said witnesses in the remains of the village on Sunday.
The youths fought a brief gun battle with soldiers posted in the village before forcing them to flee. They then set several houses alight, including the palace of the Itsekiri traditional ruler, and took several residents hostage before leaving.
Meanwhile, officials said that on Sunday Ijaw youths raided police stations at Burutu and Bomadi, south-west of Warri, making off with arms and ammunition from the two stations.
Earlier this month, a new Ijaw youth movement, calling itself the Federated Niger-Delta Izon Communities, seized control of foreign oil company flow-stations in the swamps south and west of Warri. The occupation of the sites has shut off around 600,000 barrels per day in exports, slashing Nigeria’s exports by one third and costing the country and affected oil companies millions of dollars a day in lost sales.
The attacks over the weekend came in violation of a dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed on the Warri region by Delta State’s military administrator Navy Commander Walter Feghabo on Thursday.
* The Nigerian fuel pipeline blaze that killed more than 700 people has finally been extinguished by local firefighters, a week after it began. Fire crews discovered 50 more bodies at the site after putting out the blaze, the local television station reported.
The pipeline exploded on October 17 after locals tampered with it seeking free fuel. Hundreds are still in hospital suffering burns caused by the ensuing blaze.