Armed groups in Nigeria’s oil-producing south are building up weapons and supplies for a major attack on an oil facility in the world’s eight largest exporter, militant and security sources said on Tuesday.
The planned rebel offensive against Africa’s largest oil industry comes after the collapse of a government peace initiative and in response to increased military raids on militant hideouts in the region.
”There could be a massive attack on an oil installation in Rivers state,” said Jonjon Oyeinfie, a former leader of ethnic rights group Ijaw Youth Council, in reference to Nigeria’s largest oil-producing state.
Rivers state is home to Nigeria’s largest oil and gas export complex on Bonny Island, as well as hundreds of oilfields and pipelines.
Oyeinfie is a member of a committee representing militants that has held talks with the government on a negotiated settlement to the Niger Delta crisis, which has escalated dramatically over the past five years.
He blamed the military for stoking tensions in the creeks around Rivers state capital Port Harcourt, and said armed groups had lost faith in the government after repeated army raids.
Militant attacks and kidnappings over the past two years have closed a fifth of Nigeria’s oil capacity, driven away thousands of foreign workers, shut two oil refineries, crippled power supply and hit investment.
Security consultants working for oil multinationals said they had also picked up talk of an attack on the industry in Rivers state within days.
Lawless
Delta rebels say they are fighting for control of the region’s oil wealth, but their fight is intertwined with communal and ethnic rivalries in the delta, where kidnapping for ransom, extortion and oil theft are also big business.
They observed a ceasefire for four months after the inauguration of President Umaru Yar’Adua in May, who promised to address the root causes of the crisis.
But they pulled out in September when a factional militia leader was arrested in Angola on gun-running charges, and relations have steadily worsened since then.
Last month troops in helicopter gunships bombed suspected hideouts of a prominent militant in Rivers state, Ateke Tom, provoking a bloody reprisal last week on police stations, a hotel and a nightclub in which 18 people were killed.
Suspicions have also been raised by a leaked confidential army report outlining a proposal for a massive increase in troop numbers and weapons to wipe out rebel camps across the region of mangrove-lined creeks and swamp almost the size of England.
Solomon Giwa-Amu, director of information at the Defence Ministry, said the military was merely trying to maintain law and order and was not targeting any particular group.
”The military carried out operations and found weapons. If Ateke Tom is resident in those areas, that is unfortunate, but you can’t talk peace and surround yourself with heavy weapons,” he told Reuters.
Oyeinfie said the raids on Tom’s hideout illustrated the government’s lack of sincerity because Tom had only recently signed up to the peace process.
Another militant source said Tom was now stockpiling large quantities of arms, food and water for another offensive.
The most powerful rebel force in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said last week it was supplying Tom with weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, and had reunited rival factions after a split last year.
It reiterated its objective of completely halting Nigeria’s exports of two million barrels per day of crude oil. — Reuters