Okey Unwuchekwa
11 July 2008
Lagos — MILITANT group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), yesterday vowed to attack British interests in Nigeria if it provided military or logistic support to its former colony.
MEND also called off its ceasefire effective tomorrow (July 12) to protest British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown's offer to assist the Nigerian government to combat attacks on oil facilities by militants in the Niger Delta.
The PM on Wednesday had assured Nigeria that Britain was ready to help combat the lawlessness that has disrupted oil production in the Niger Delta region.
"We stand ready to give help to the Nigerians to deal with lawlessness that exists in this area and to achieve the levels of production that Nigeria is capable of, but because of the law and order problems has not been able to achieve," Britain's head of government had told a news conference at the G8 Summit in Japan.
Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan had earlier written to the United States of America (USA) to help secure oil and gas industry in the Niger Delta.
Similarly, Bayelsa State governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, had at the just-concluded World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, Spain, urged the United Kingdom, the US to help tackle militancy in the Niger Delta.
Reacting to the MEND's threat, the spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF), an outfit saddled with responsibility to ensure peace in the troubled oil-rich region, Lt Col Musa Sagir, said there was no cause for alarm over the militant group's threat.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Daily Champion Sagir also urged Nigerians, Britons and other foreigners not to panic over the fresh MEND's threat, as security is assured.
"We will do our maximum best to ensure that lives and property are well protected. We therefore appeal to all the people to go about their activities without fear of molestation. We are mindful of our responsibility to Nigerians and foreigners, he said.
Brown's offer of help drew the ire of MEND, which in an e-mail statement obtained by Daily Champion warned Britain to steer clear of the Niger Delta matter.
MEND leader Jomo Gbomo's statement reads:
"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) wishes to sound a stern warning to the British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, over his recent statement offering to provide military support to the illegal government of Umaru Yar'Adua in further oppressing the impoverished people of the Niger Delta.
"To demonstrate our seriousness to the UK support of an injustice, MEND will be calling off its unilateral ceasefire with effect from midnight, Saturday July 12, 2008.
"Mr. Yar'Adua in a fraudulent appeal to the G8 leaders in Japan misled the international community into believing that the unrest and agitation in the region is due to oil theft which encourages "blood oil".
"The international community and independent researchers are very well aware that the unrest in the region is as a result of over five decades of oil exploration that has developed other parts of Nigeria to the detriment of the environment and people of the Niger Delta.
"The United Kingdom is part of this problem with the politics it played pre-independence that gave leverage to some sections of the country to marginalize and exploit the region today.
"Should Gordon Brown make good his threat to support this criminality for the sake of oil, UK citizens and interests in Nigeria will suffer the consequences."
Brown did not, however, mention military support to combat militancy in Niger Delta.
It is not yet clear, if President Yar'Adua would still hold talks with Brown next week in London over the militancy upsurge in Niger Delta in view of the fresh threat by MEND.
MEND had since 2006 been disrupting oil production in the Niger Delta as part of its campaign for control of resources by people of the area.
Besides disrupting oil production, kidnapping of foreigners has been on the increase following MEND's violent campaign. The group has, however, clarified that it was not behind most of the hostage-takings involving the payment of ransom.
Meanwhile, the planned Niger Delta Summit to tackle the menace ran into a hitch Wednesday with Ibrahim Gambari pulling out of the chairmanship of the steering committee of the proposed summit following the groundswell of opposition against his chairmanship.
Eminent Nigerians including Prof. Wole Soyinka opposed Gambari's nomination for defending the hanging of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa at the United Nations.
Meanwhile, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujihad Asari-Dokubo, stated that if British soldiers step into the region Niger Delta would be another Waterloo for them.
Dokubo-Asari said that the British should remember that originally the Niger Delta region was known as the Whiteman grave.
He accused Britain of offering Northern Nigeria oligarchy the support to oppress and exploit the Niger Delta people and vowed that the people are battle-ready to resist any neocolonial incursion of the region.
"If they think they can come and take our oil resources by force, we wish them well. They should come," Dokubo-Asari said.
Dokubo-Asari questioned what the British forces have been able to achieve in Afghanistan and Iraq since they arrived there and observed that if the English think the Niger Delta would provide another battle field for them to sell arms and ammunition, their desires would fail.
Meanwhile, oil prices jumped nearly $6 to above $141 a barrel yesterday amid threats to production in Nigeria and Brazil and an additional missile test by Iran that escalated tensions with the West.
Further support came from the weak dollar, which fell on renewed credit worries after capital concerns dragged down shares in major mortgage finance sources Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
U.S. crude settled up $5.60 at $141.65 a barrel, off a session high of $142.10 a barrel. London Brent crude settled $5.45 higher at $142.03 a barrel.
The MEND, the main militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, said it was abandoning a cease-fire to protest a British offer to help tackle lawlessness in the region, raising concern of further disruptions to the OPEC nation's exporters.
"The cease-fire in Nigeria is ending on the 12th, and that's creating some jitters as far as supply is concerned," said Rob Kurzatkowski, futures analyst with optionsXpress.
Rebel attacks on oil infrastructure in Nigeria, the world's No. 8 exporter, have helped push crude prices to record highs over $145 this month, adding to a nearly 50 percent rise in prices this year.
Concerns that tensions between Iran, another OPEC member, and the West over Tehran's nuclear program could lead to an oil supply disruption have added to bullish sentiment.
Iran tested more missiles in the Gulf on Thursday, state media said, and the United States reminded Tehran that it was ready to defend its allies.
But a U.S. official said there was no information of a rumored third Iran missile test late Thursday. There was no mention of a third test on Iranian satellite channels Press TV or Al Alam on their broadcast Thursday evening.
Workers at Brazil's Petrobras threatened to launch a five-day strike for next week that would affect all 42 Campos basin offshore platforms, which account for more than 80 percent of Brazil's oil output of around 1.8 million barrels per day.
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