Militants Tackle FG On Niger Delta Security

Militants Tackle FG On Niger Delta Security

INSURGENTS of the Niger Delta have unveiled their plan for an enduring security in the volatile oil and gas region.

According to them, the best way to prevent insurgency from disrupting oil exploration and production activities in the Niger Delta, was to comprehensively review the joint venture agreements in the petroleum industry.

They want the joint venture deals between the Federal Government and the oil and gas corporations to be reviewed with a view to accommodating the oil-bearing communities as key joint venture partners.

This is coming against the backdrop of guarded whispers in some top official circles in the oil region that the Federal Government is currently working out a new security plan for the Niger Delta where attacks by militants on oil facilities and kidnapping are major security concerns.

It was, however, gathered yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that Abuja is concerned about the security issues in the Niger Delta, and was accordingly resolved to prevent perennial disruption of oil production activities by militants.

Our correspondent also gathered that Abuja is equally considering measures to ensure a healthy working environment in the oil and gas region.

Secretary of the Central Organising Committee of the Niger Delta Youths Parliament, Mr. Wellman Warri, told our correspondent in an interview yesterday that insurgent groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta MEND), the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), the Niger Delta Patriotic Force (NDPF), and the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) should be ''engaged'' by the Fedral Government even if their members persist in insurgency

''Government should engage the main militant groups, who, despite their use of violence, are willing to participate in the peace and political process'', Mr. Warri said.

Adding, he said, ''as a central organising committee, we fear that by ignoring the main militant groups, government stands the risk of causing the emergence of far more radcal and deadly organisations with the worse forms of tactics''.

Spokesman for the Ateke Tom-led NDPF and NDV, Tamunokuro Ebitari, said the core demands of the Niger Delta militants are as follows:
* Unconditional release of the MEND Leader, Henry Okah, who is currently facing treason charges in camera.
* Presidential amnesty to all militants. Such amnesty must be backed with an official gazette.
* Demilitarisation of all communities in the Niger Delta occupied by the occupation forces of the Nigerian state.
* Review of the joint venture agreements to allow for the participation of the oil-bearing communities as key partners.
* Establishment of Oil Commissions in all the nine oil-producing states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers.
* Development of new towns in the oil region.
* Creation of new states particularly for the Ijaw people, and adequate funding of the newly created Niger Delta Affairs Ministry.

Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), retired General Alexander Ogomudia, had in a top-level security report to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2002 claimed that enduring peace in the oil region cannot be achieved by militarisation or the ''security approach''.

The Ogomudia security panel recommended to government the creation of an ''Integrated Oil Producing Areas Security and Safety System'' with an operations centre to co-ordinate all the law enforcement agencies, including the Army, the Navy, Police, State Security Service (SSS) and other relevant authorities.

ENDS

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