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/ 22 May 2008

Forty-three soldiers killed in Nigerian road accident

At least 43 Nigerian soldiers who had just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed in a road accident in the north of Nigeria, a military spokesperson said on Thursday. The soldiers, including an army captain, were in a convoy of seven vehicles in north-eastern Yobe state on Wednesday when one of them collided with an oncoming petrol tanker.

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/ 20 May 2008

Nigeria becomes world piracy hot spot

Nigeria has become the world piracy ”hot spot”, with its prized oil industry a particular target, and the raiders have exposed flaws in the country’s security. Despite the massive revenues earned from oil, officials concede Nigeria is ill-equipped to combat pirates who ply the seas with speed boats, modern machine guns and radios.

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/ 5 May 2008

Nigeria oil rebels considering Obama truce appeal

Rebels who have stepped up attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry in the last month said on Sunday they were considering a ceasefire appeal by United States presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has launched five attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta since it resumed a campaign of violence in April.

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/ 25 April 2008

Nigeria militants claim another oil-pipeline bombing

The main militant group behind a string of recent attacks in Nigeria’s southern oil region said on Friday it had sabotaged another pipeline. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said its fighters hit a pipeline late on Thursday in southern Rivers State — bringing to four the number of pipelines the group has reportedly hit in the past week.

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/ 21 April 2008

Nigeria rebels claim attacks on oil pipelines

A rebel group from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said it attacked two major oil pipelines there on Monday in what it called a message to the United States. In an email, a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said its commandos had carried out attacks against the pipelines located at Isaka River and Abonnema River.

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/ 26 March 2008

Nigerian schoolchildren die in wall collapse

Thirteen students in a private Nigerian primary school died and several others were injured when a boundary wall collapsed, police said on Wednesday. ”It was an unfortunate incident. Thirteen children lost their lives while several others, including their teachers, were also injured,” Oyo state police spokesperson Bisi Okuwobi said.

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/ 26 February 2008

Nigerian prisons a ‘national scandal’

Nigeria’s prisons are a ”national scandal”, filled with thousands of inmates who have never been convicted of any crime while some prisoners wait decades to face trial, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. The human rights group said only about 35% of Nigerian inmates have been convicted in court.

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/ 24 January 2008

Nigeria takes on big tobacco

Cigarette packets sold in Nigeria carry a health warning: ”The Federal Ministry of Health warns that cigarette smokers are liable to die young.” But, says the government, this warning has not stopped many Nigerian youngsters from smoking. Taju Olaide says that he was unaware of the warning because he is uneducated and therefore cannot read what is printed on the cigarette packs.

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/ 11 January 2008

Group claims responsibility for Nigeria tanker blaze

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) on Friday claimed responsibility for the blaze that started earlier in the day on a tanker berthed in Port Harcourt, the country’s main oil hub. "Mend confirms that its Freelance Freedom Fighters working inside the oil industry detonated a remote explosive device," the group said in a statement.

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/ 8 January 2008

Talk of ‘massive attack’ on Nigerian oil facility

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.

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/ 2 January 2008

At least 12 dead in Nigeria violence

At least 12 people were killed over New Year in Nigeria’s oil capital, Port Harcourt, when gunmen attacked two police stations and a hotel, a military officer in the city said on Wednesday. ”For now what we are looking at is between 12 and 16 dead in total,” the officer, who asked not to be named, said, adding that the total included both civilians and police.

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/ 23 December 2007

Clouds gather over Nigeria’s oil industry

Despite being the world’s eighth petroleum exporter and sitting on huge gas reserves, Nigeria will not have it easy over the next two years, between peristent unrest in the Niger Delta and strained relations with oil companies. This absence of security means that Nigeria, which ranks fifth among suppliers of crude oil to the United States, lost one quarter of its production in 2006 and 2007.

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/ 21 December 2007

Nigerians ‘can no longer sleep with both eyes closed’

Banker Funso Afolabi has still not recovered from the day he went out for a drink with friends in Lagos after work only to be attacked by armed robbers on the lookout for cash, watches and cellphones. ”We thought it was a joke, until one of them fired some shots into the air. A stray bullet hit one of my friends and he has been unable to use his right leg ever since,” the 40-year-old laments.

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/ 13 December 2007

Nigerian leader meeting Bush on vote, energy

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua was to have his first meeting with United States President George Bush in Washington on Thursday, after US criticism of his election but admissions that Nigeria’s oil is important. They ”will discuss electoral reform and related issues, energy and the situation in the Niger Delta,” Bush’s spokesperson said.

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/ 13 November 2007

In Lagos, the bridges are shaking

Without its immense motorway bridges spanning the lagoon, Lagos, the tentacular commercial capital of Nigeria, would be paralysed. Every day, well before dawn, tens of millions of vehicles set out to cross bridges that were the envy of the African continent back in the Seventies. Deprived of maintenance ever since, they are now showing signs of wear and tear.

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/ 11 November 2007

Nigeria minister sees $100 oil shortlived

There is no fundamental justification for oil at a barrel and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member Nigeria is assuming that prices will not last at this level, Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said on Saturday. He said that no one in Opec would be surprised if the price fell to in the next few weeks.

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/ 8 November 2007

Nigerian leader among those to forfeit land

Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua has ratified revocation of Abuja plots allocated to him and other top citizens by former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, newspapers said here on Thursday. The country’s highest ruling body cited ”overriding public interests” for the revocation of the choice plots in the federal capital city.

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/ 29 October 2007

At least 30 burn to death in Nigeria road crash

At least 30 people were burnt to death when a fully laden road tanker overturned and caught fire on a busy highway, Nigerian police said on Monday. The truck was conveying fuel from the commercial capital, Lagos, to the northern part of Africa’s most populous nation when it crashed and spilled its contents in the south-western Ogun state late on Sunday.

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/ 26 October 2007

Attack halts Italian oil facility off Nigeria

Gunmen attacked a support vessel to an Italian-operated oil-production facility off the coast of Nigeria on Friday, industry and security sources said. The attackers overpowered the vessel shortly before dawn and used it to attempt to board the Mystras production facility, operated by Saipem and SBM Offshore, forcing the facility to halt production.