Nigeria Offshore Safety & Security Update

KIDNAPPINGS CONTINUE

2006-08-14T18:07:00.000+01:00

Five foreigners, including two Britons have been taken by a group of armed men from a nightclub in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria on Sunday night.

It is the fifth kidnapping in the oil-rich Niger Delta in two weeks. State police have made no arrests.

In most cases, hostages are released unharmed, usually after a financial deal is struck, but analysts say the ransom payments fuel the violence.

On Monday, three Filipinos were released 10 days after being kidnapped.

A rise in attacks in recent months by militants, seeking more local control of the Niger Delta's rich oil resources, has cut Nigeria's oil production by 25%.

A British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said they were in contact with the Nigerian authorities, and the companies the men work for will be in touch with their families.

Shooting

Reports say gunmen entered the Goodfellas bar in Port Harcourt popular with foreign oil workers and went around asking people their nationality and who was their employer. A barman said they took away five white people.

"They were shooting and everyone started screaming," driver George Ani told AP news agency.

"They took some expatriates but I don't know how many. I lay on the floor of my car until it was finished."

Blood stains were visible on the floor.

"The kidnappers ... burnt one of the vehicles they used, maybe to destroy anything that could give them out, and escaped through the waterway," a police spokeswoman in Port Harcourt told Reuters news agency.

A Briton is among four people being held hostage by extremists in Nigeria, according to local police.

The oil workers were kidnapped at gunpoint from a nightclub in the southern city of Port Harcourt.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the reports and are urgently looking into them."

George Ani, a driver in Port Harcourt, said he saw more than ten people go into the Goodfellas club and drag away a group of foreigners.

He said: "They were shooting and everyone started screaming. They took some expatriates but I don't know how many. I lay on the floor of my car until it was finished."

Mr Ani said the nightclub attackers were wearing military uniforms and did not cover their faces. He did not see anyone injured in the raid.

Foreign workers in Nigeria have had their movements severely restricted following a series of abductions in the country's oil-rich south-eastern delta over the last week.

Nigeria is Africa's largest crude oil producer, typically generating about 2.6 million barrels a day.

But militant attacks have cut production by more than 20 per cent since the start of the year.

Industry sources say hostage-taking has become an attractive business.

The Delta is awash with weapons, unemployment is high and communities feel aggrieved at the lack of development.

Armed groups have proliferated, often linked to local politicians.

The BBC's Alex Last in Nigeria says the money is often used to buy weapons and there are fears that the various often competing groups are trying to strengthen their positions ahead of elections early next year.

Release

The three Filipinos were freed on Monday and handed over to the Philippine embassy.

They had been working at the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas complex in Bonny.

There is no news on a German oil worker who was taken at the same time.

Last Wednesday, two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were seized from a ship offshore.

On Thursday, a Belgian and a Moroccan were abducted while travelling in a car.

Workers to be freed

2006-08-14T18:05:00.000+01:00

Four foreign workers kidnapped from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria last week will be freed, Norway's NTB news agency said on Monday.

It quoted Norway's ambassador in Nigeria, Tore Nedreboe, as saying that a deal had been reached to release the two Norwegians and two Ukrainians, seized during a spate of abductions.

Camerounians assault Bakasi accuses Nigeria

2006-08-14T18:03:00.000+01:00

WIDESPREAD discontent is pervading the Bakassi Peninsula, with Nigeria accusing Cameroun of violating part of the agreement, by forcefully taking over some villages ahead of today's handover. This is even as residents have vowed to resist any ejection, as Nigeria finally began pulling out her troops weekend.

"We have notified higher authorities (in Nigeria) about this violation of the UN-brokered agreement on the demilitarisation of the peninsula," a spokesman for the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Felix Chukwuma, told journalists weekend.

"I am very positive that Nigeria would take this up at the appropriate level," he said.

Chukwuma was referring to the alleged takeover of several villages on the peninsula by Camerounian security agents before Nigeria formally hands over the territory to Cameroun on August 14.

Reporters touring the Bakassi ahead of the formal handover saw several Camerounian soldiers camped at the village of Ibekwe. Lieutenent Colonel Ibrahim Umar, the Nigerian commander of the Isaac Boro Military Camp, which controls the area, said the presence of the Camerounian soldiers was a breach of the accord between the two countries because the territory had yet to be formally relinquished to Yaounde.

"This is obviously an act of aggression and provocation on the part of the Camerounians. Nigeria will not take kindly to this insurgence," added Major Victor Digol, a senior military officer with the Joint Task Force on Bakassi.

"If the Camerounian authorities cannot call their soldiers to order, the UN and the international community have to wade into the matter because this is a gross breach of internal protocol," he said.

Only last week, a group of youth hoisted blue-and-white flags across the region and proclaimed the secession of a "Democratic Republic of Bakassi."

But with the pulling out of thousands of troops and the removal of Nigeria's flag in the region, everything appears set for today's final handover which also signposts the beginning of the next phase in the implementation of the pact signed under United Nations auspices in June that ensures the border area's peaceful transfer to Cameroun.

The troop withdrawal follows the signing of the Greentree Agreement in New York in June in whom Nigeria recognized Cameroun's sovereignty over the territory, in accordance with a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2002, and agreed to withdraw its forces and administration.

The accord was the culmination of the work of the Cameroun-Nigeria Mixed Commission, set up by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan to peacefully resolve the Bakassi dispute and hailed as a dispute-resolution model for other conflicts in Africa.

The UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA) said in a statement issued in Dakar weekend, that the two countries would use the next meeting of the Cameroun-Nigeria Mixed Commission to discuss how to delineate their maritime boundary.

The secretary-General's special representative for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who described the troop withdrawal as "a very important step forward.," also told the UN News Centre that the leaders of several other countries in the region have informed him they would now like to use a similar model to resolve their border disputes.

Nigerian and Camerounian officials, in the presence of UN, French, German, US, British and African Union officials, will witness the exchange of documents that will legally seal the transfer of sovereignty.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah said the UN will have at least a dozen civilian observers in place to monitor the situation on the Bakassi Peninsula following the troop withdrawal and to "give reassurance" to locals that there will be no retribution or revenge taken against them. He said he was also confident that Cameroun and Nigeria would address the concerns of these locals who demonstrated last week about the recent changes.

Located on the Gulf of Guinea, the Bakassi Peninsula had been the subject of intense and sometimes violent disputes between the two countries for dozens of years when Cameroun referred the matter to the ICJ in 1994.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2002 that Nigeria should turn over Bakassi, which has offshore oil deposits and is rich in fisheries to her eastern neighbour, Cameroun after a decade-long dispute that nearly brought the two to war in 1981.

Nigeria and Cameroun have since 1993 disputed ownership of the Bakassi peninsula, a 1,000-square-kilometre (400-square-mile) patch of Atlantic coastal swamp with access to coveted fishing grounds.

The dispute led to bloody clashes between troops of the two neighbouring countries stationed each side of the territory.

Yaounde dragged Abuja in 1994 to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, which after years of legal wrangling ruled in favour of ceding the territory to Cameroun.

Nigeria rejected the ICJ ruling, saying that it did not take into account the interests of Nigerians living in Bakassi. The United Nations intervened and the two countries set up a UN-chaired joint commission to solve the crisis.

Nigerian President Obasanjo and his Camerounian counterpart Paul Biya on June 12 signed a deal under which Nigeria agreed to withdraw its troops from Bakassi "within 60 days" and hand over the territory to Cameroun.

Under the deal, signed in the presence of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the islands of Atabong and Abana, which form the western part of Bakassi, will continue to be administered by Nigeria for two years after the withdrawal.

It also stipulates that Nigerians living in southern Bakassi will have up to two years to decide whether to remain Nigerian citizens living in Cameroun, to take Camerounian nationality or to return to Nigerian soil.

DAILY CHAMPION

According to the Nigerian Tribune...

2006-08-14T05:53:00.000+01:00

Nigeria's ruling political party - the Peoples Democratic Party - is set to form a committee that will amend its constitution to create the position of president for life for the current President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Sources said the decision was reached during an all-night meeting involving President Olusegun Obasanjo, 18 People's Democratic Party (PDP) state governors, and some deputy governors held at his villa.

It was said that the secretary to the government of the federation, Uffort Ekaette, PDP national chairman, Dr Ahmadu Ali, the Jigawa state governor, Dr Saminu Turaki, were also in attendance at the meeting.

Apparently, two of the governors presented speeches which praised the president, and suggested the creation of a special place for him "hereafter".

The governors said Obasanjo, in this special position, would be a guide to the party, and would partake in crucial decision making matters that affected both the party and the government.

There is not yet any indication if the newly created post for Obasanjo has the support of the majority, but many believe that he needs to redeem his image after his failed third term and Interim National Government (ING) bid.

Obasanjo recently pushed for the creation of an interim government in Nigeria, citing the fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not ready for the 2007 elections.

Fears that Obasanjo might want to hold on to power at any cost have only fuelled rumours of him pushing for an ING in Nigeria.

Obasanjo also recently submitted a proposal to the national assembly to have the constitution ammended making provision for a third term. The national assembly subsequently refused to ammend the constitution.

Ogoni: Oral Intervention at the Working Group on Minorities 2006

2006-08-14T05:39:00.000+01:00

At the 12th Session of the Working Group on Minorities, MOSOP highlights the situation for the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, calls for a conditional moratorium on oil production and UNHCR action concerning Ogoni refugees in the Benin Republic.

Human Rights Council
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
12th Session of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities
Geneva
Switzerland
8th –11th, August, 2006

Agenda Item 3a. Reviewing the Promotion and Practical Realization of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

Mr. Chairperson,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this august gathering. I am Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, a representative of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the umbrella organisation for the about seven hundred thousand Ogoni Indigenous minority in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

The Ogoni story exemplifies the case of the reported violations by the Nigeria government and multinational corporations, of all the human rights standards that the United Nations set out to protect when it was formed some sixty years ago and which is still continuing in this early years of the 21st century with raven ferocity.

Mr.Chairperson, it is worthy to note that since Nigeria’s return to civil rule about seven years ago, it is alleged that rather than embarking on programmes that will ensure the protection of our physical existence and recognition of our identity as a group, as stated in Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Minorities(UNDM), the Nigeria government has continued with a privatisation and liberalization programme that requires the intensification of the exploitation of oil and gas which has resulted in the massive destruction of our environment and its resources. This has led to unplanned movements and driven many Ogoni people and other Niger Delta communities to extreme poverty and possible extinction. On the onset of the regime, it is estimated that about 75% of the Ogoni population live below poverty line, today that has increased to 85% percent of the population.

Last year, Mr.Chairperson, the Nigerian government took the encouraging step of submitting their combined periodic reports which fell due and outstanding since 1994 to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The MOSOP submitted a Shadow Report to the Committee. In our report, we highlighted the critical need for the Nigeria State to include the ethnic and religious variables which were lacking in the state report as a requirement in the impending National Population Census that was to be conducted. This is a serious requirement under Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination(ICERD)which is also reinforced in Article 1 of the UNDM. This is very crucial for the recognition of our identity as a people and that of other minorities that has been assimilitated into larger cultures and ethnicities. The fulfillment of this requirement would have ended the myth of the claim of large population by some ethnic and religious groups.

Sadly, reports came to our attention that the majority Hausa/Fulani led by their emirs protested against the inclusion of these variables in the census and the Nigeria government in flagrant disregard of the CERD Recommendations as contained in the document CERD/C/NGA/CO/18 which calls for the inclusion of indicators disaggregated by ethnicity, religion and gender in the Population Count has conducted the National Population Census without the inclusion of these variables. Thus, denying us yet another opportunity of recognizing our identity and that of other minorities in Nigeria.

Non Recognition/Non Development of Minority Languages

Mr.Chairperson, one of the greatest assaults on our collective identity as a people is the alledged commission of cultural genocide by the Nigeria government through the systematic destruction of our language, the carrier of our identity. Articles 1.1, 4.1-4 of the UNDM requires the Nigerian State to put in measures to protect and promote the development of our language.

The Federal language policy actively protects and promotes the development of the language of the majority ethnic groups of Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo by making them part of the national curriculum while neglecting the languages of most minorities. The constitutionalisation of this act of discrimination by the government is provided for in section 55 of the 1999 Nigeria constititution which states that the business of the National Assembly shall be conducted in English and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba when adequate arrangements have been made therefor.

It will interest you to note Mr. Chairman that as I speak here today, I cannot read nor write in my language, not because I chose to but because I have never had the opportunity of learning my language as it was never part of my school curricula. Such is the fate of thousands of members of my generation.

Forced Evictions, Refugee Situation and Population Movements

Mr.Chairperson,last year, we brought to the attention of this Working Group the forced evictions of a large number of members of the nearly eight thousand Ogoni population resident in the Agip Shanty town in Port Harcourt who were becoming victims of multiple discriminations and violations. Following the occupation of Ogoni in 1993-1998 by the government’s Internal Security Task Force which embarked on an alleged scotched earth policy of raping, torturing and arresting of individuals and the summary burning down of whole communities and homes, most Ogonis fled from their homes to take solace in the shanty towns where they built new houses at great costs while others went on exile.

Unfortunately, in the early part of last year, it has been reported and I have witnessed the Rivers State government’s demolition of these shanty towns without providing alternative accommodations or payment of compensations to these people. More than one year after the demolition and forced evictions, most of the victims are still living like fugitives while eleven persons had died. Such is the pitiable situation of Nigeria’s minorities.

Incidental to the above is the case of nearly two thousand Ogoni people who fled into exile and were uprooted from their roots in the wake of the militarisation of Ogoni by the then military dictatorship and the one thousand five hundred who are still left stranded at the UNHCR Camp in Benin Republic, whose situation we have brought to the attention of this Working Group since 2001.

While expressing our thanks to countries that have extended their hands of fellowship and provided homes to persecuted Ogoni people over the years and gratitude to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for their humanitarian commitment to the Ogoni people, we wish to restate that the slow pace of attention and focus on the remaining Ogoni refugees at the UNHCR Camp in Benin is casting a somewhat dark shadow on the work of the refugee commission. A solution is needed.

Ogoni and Shell Relationship

Mr. Chairperson and members of this Working group, I wish to inform you that in the coming months, Ogoni will be moving into another stage of differences with Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Nigerian government. By the Middle of last year, the Federal government announced a Peace Process between the Ogoni people and Shell Petroleum Development Company and appointed a facilitator for that process. As a responsible organization committed to dialogue and a peaceful resolution of the Ogoni crisis, though not without our own misgivings,MOSOP had welcomed the process stressing that so long as the process is transparent and genuine, we would be willing to participate in it.

Events in the past months are pointing to serious difficulties. While it was generally agreed in the facilitator’s Joint Draft Concept Paper that Shell suspends all activities in Ogoniland until all issues have been sorted out, it has been reported that the company has been trying to enter Ogoniland without engaging in the proposed talks with the active connivance of the Nigerian government. Shell is presently trying to build a gas plant in the Ogoni community of Ban Ogoi.We are also receiving reports that with the support of the Federal Government, the company is planning to embark on a remediation of Ogoniland that has not been discussed with the Ogoni people and is also outside the Peace Process. This is a recipe for crisis. We ask that the Working Group on Minorities draw attention to this serious situation.

Realizing the discriminatory impacts of the 1978 Land Use Act and the Petroleum Decree of 1969 which divests the Ogoni people and other oil bearing minorities of their rights of ownership and possession of land and their rights of participation/consultation in the economic exploitation of the oil resource which have implication on their rights as eloquently expressed in Article 4.5 of the UNDM and Article 2 of ICERD, the CERD in 2005 had recommended the repeal of the 1978 Land Use Act and the 1969 Petroleum Decree. Till this moment, the government has not taken any serious step aimed at addressing these issues.

Political Participation and Accountability

Members of this august gathering, the Nigeria government have repeatedly touted the creation of local government areas as a way of dealing with problems of Nigeria’s minorities. State and Local government creation exercises in Nigeria is what the Late Ken Saro Wiwa described as the most illogical, quixotic and unabashedly shameful practice of the Nigeria government.

According to the late Sage, Obafemi Awolowo, “in a true federation, every ethnic group whether big or small is equal”. But what is equal in a Nigerian Federation where the Hausa/Fulani with a little contribution to the national coffers in terms of revenue, have above two hundred and seventy(270) local government areas spread into eleven(11) states while the Ogonis are consigned to just four(4) local government areas. Even in terms of population proportionality, this is undermining the rights of the Ogoni.

Mr. Chairperson, the exercise of State and local government creations in Nigeria were largely driven by the motive of transferring the enormous revenues generated from the resources of the Niger Delta to the majority territories as states and local governments became the platform for the distribution of the Federal revenue otherwise called National Cake while at the same time giving a semblance of devolving power to the minorities. A recent Human Rights Watch report from April, 2006 provides greater details about this situation.

As the elections of 2007 draws near, political violence is now on the increase, for example, the murder of a prominent politician a week ago and it is reported that politicians have begun to amass small arms in preparations for the elections reminiscent of the 2003 experience. Our organization has prepared a fuller report on this situation. The security of lives of the ordinary citizen is being greatly compromised. It is alledged that with no control over the security agencies, minority nationalities that at the moment have no adequate and constructive mode of participation are going to be consumed in the unfolding battle for power.

Exoneration of the Ogoni Nine

Mr. Chairperson, The right to redress, as set forth in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and numerous other instruments, is a key right in international human rights law. It is a key preventive measure against cycles of further conflict and violations of human rights. Redress will provide the ground from which sorely needed reconciliation and the protection of human rights can grow.

The international community will remember that on November 10, 1995, Nigerian writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow activists of the Ogoni People-The Ogoni 9 were hanged by the military government of Nigeria. In resolution A/RES/50/199, the General Assembly condemned the executions as arbitrary and the tribunal as flawed and send a fact finding mission to Ogoni. The Secretary General presented the mission’s findings to the Fiftieth Session of the General Assembly in A/50/960.

The mission condemned the tribunal, stating that it did not have jurisdiction to try the Ogoni Nine, and did not conform to applicable international and regional human rights law, or to domestic law. The mission recommended redress to the Ogoni People including financial relief to the survivors and assistance in improving the socio-economic conditions of the Ogoni people and the Niger Delta in general.

However, nearly eleven years since the execution, the Nigerian government, now under civilian rule, has failed to address the plight of the Ogoni people and to protect their human rights. The recommendations of the Secretary-General’s fact finding mission and the African Commission have been completely ignored. Despite President Obasanjo’s stated commitment of May 2002 to clearing the names of the Ogoni Nine, the Nine remain convicted of a crime for which they were unjustly accused and unfairly tried.

This is happening in our view because Ken Saro Wiwa and his fellow colleagues are from a minority ethnic group and discriminated against. We make this assertion based on the fact that the current President of Nigeria, General Obasanjo from the majority Yoruba tribe was accused and condemned in 1995 for Treason-the highest crime to be committed against a nation-state. In 1998, he was released from Prison, cleared of the crime and subsequently won elections to become Nigeria’s President. It is instructive to note that by Nigeria’s constitution, no condemned person is eligible to contest elections into any political office. General Obasanjo was able to contest because he was cleared of the crime on the basis that he was unjustly tried and condemned. The same situation that applies to Ken Saro Wiwa and co.

In the light of the foregoing, we wish to recommend as follows:

That the Working Group:

1. Urges the Nigeria government to set up a process of clearing of the names of the Ogoni Nine.

2. Calls on the Nigeria government to provide adequate protection mechanism for minorities in the constitution and government policies and programmes.

3. Calls on the Nigerian government to provide an enabling environment for the conduct of free and fair elections in 2007

4. Prevails on the Nigerian government to provide a mechanism that will lead to the equal and proportional representation of Ogoni people with other nationalities in the forth coming elections as the present situation appears to completely marginalize the Ogoni people in political representation.

5. Calls on the Nigeria government to take active step in removing the veil of impunity that is perceived to surround political and electoral violence in Nigeria.

6. Pressures the Nigeria government to stop the crude and damaging process of economic liberalization and privatization that is driving the vast majority of members of oil bearing minorities to extreme poverty.

7. Asks the Nigerian government to stop the ongoing militarisation of the Niger Delta and withdraw all its military officers from the area.

8. Calls on the Rivers State Government to pay compensation to those whose homes were demolished during the demolition of Agip Shanty Town.

9. Calls on the Nigeria government to respect the decisions of International Human Rights bodies and implement the various recommendations of the 67th session of CERD which affects minorities.

10. Calls on the Nigeria government to promote multicultural education in schools especially to put in a national process of minority language education. The present reification of three languages should be stopped

11. Requests Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria to suspend all activities in Ogoni until all the matters is resolved.

12. Requests that a well defined process of improving the socio-economic conditions of the Ogoni People is put in place by the Nigeria government as a matter of urgency. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has failed the Ogoni people. Only one project has been implemented between 2000-2004. (See the previous MOSOP report, “More than Rhetoric” for further information

We also request that:

1. A moratorium be placed on oil production until and when an environmental audit has been done in Ogoni

2. The Independent Expert on Minorities’ issues consider visiting Nigeria for her to better appreciate the situation that Nigeria’s minorities face.

3. The UNHCR expedite actions on remedying the situation of Ogoni refugees in the UNHCR Camp in Benin Republic.

Thank you.

Legborsi Saro Pyagbara
International Advocacy Officer
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)

Bakassi Peninsula Becoming Part of Cameroun Today

2006-08-14T05:33:00.000+01:00

BARING any unforeseen hitch, Nigeria is expected to hand over the disputed oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to the Cameroun today. Preparations for the eventual withdrawal of Nigerian troops ahead of the handing over today had begun at the Isaac Boro camp in Atabong where the 26 Battalion of the Nigerian Army was stationed.

Journalists were permitted to witness the withdrawal of the troops from the area paving the way for the formal handing over of the territory to the Cameroun.

The withdrawal of the 26 Battalion was a solemn sight as the Nigerian flag, the Army flag and the Battalion flag were lowered amidst tears from the locals who stood to watch, including the Vice Chairman of Bakassi Local Government, Hon. Udeme Okon.

Okon who barely managed to control his emotion while speaking with newsmen, lamented that Nigerian troops were withdrawn when his people had not been relocated or resettled as agreed and promised by government. He also regretted the fact that the plan to replace the Nigerian soldiers with men of the Mobile Police Force was yet to be effected before the withdrawal thereby leaving the Bakassi people at the mercy of the ‘merciless’ Cameroun gendarmes.

Briefing newsmen earlier in Calabar on the same day on plans for the troop withdrawal, the Director of Operations, Defence Headquarters of the Nigerian Army, Major General Steve Guar, disclosed that the final pull out of the Nigerian troops would be effected later in the day (Friday, 11 August 2006) and that the formal handing over would be done on Monday, 14 August, 2006.

He admitted that following the Nigerian military’s withdrawal coupled with the invasion of the area by the Cameroun gendarmes, tension and apprehension were high but that they had no choice but to obey international judgment and agreement. He confirmed the reports that some youths of Bakassi had vowed to seek self-determination than subject themselves to the authority of the Camerounian government, saying, “we are aware that some youths of Bakassi clandestinely on the 6th of August hoisted flags in different places in thearea, claiming an independent state but that his men had been instructed to pull down the flags which were five in number.

The places Nigerian Tribune visited to confirm actual pull out of the Nigerian troop included Atabong east and west, Ibekwe, Boro Camp, Sand-Sand, Akpafia and Abana.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to minimise tension after the hand over of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroun, a highway linking the two countries is to be constructed to boost interactions between their people.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday that the highway was part of confidence building measures towards permanent peace.

According to him, Nigeria had since fulfilled its part of the bargain in respect of the road project which will ultimately form part of a West -Central African highway.

Harping on the need to empower inhabitants of the border areas, Baba-Ahmed said that friction would be minimised if the communities were economically secure.

“The idea is to resolve conflict in the long run by encouraging trade and social interactions. Obviously, people who interact are not likely to fight each other,” he said.

Baba-Ahmed said that Nigeria had an excellent understanding with Camerounian authorities as both countries strived to contain local problems created by the October 10, 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgement.

“We all realise that the judgement will create such localised problems but we are both committed to handling such internal matters in the spirit of give and take.

“Nigeria from the outset approached this issue with an open mind. We have done the right thing and the rest of the world must understand with us. We have gone as far as it is possible,” he said.

Another Company Pulling Immediately Out of Niger Delta

2006-08-12T05:56:00.000+01:00

Following threats of kidnapping of its staff and the deteriorating security situation in the Niger Delta, construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, has decided to move out of the region completely and immediately.

The Governor of Bayelsa State, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan disclosed this at the occasion of the inauguration of the 'State Council on Social Development,' in Yenagoa yesterday.

Jonathan said the decision of the compay is informed by the increase rate of kidnapping and particularly the recent kidnap of a German citizen in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, by militants.

The Governor warned that in view of this and the consequence of it to the development of the region, government has decided to take drastic measures against the militants. "We cannot continue to be taking people, contractors that are working for us hostage, this must stop".He warned.

Jonathan was particularly hard on community leaders who continue to harbour known militants by creating a safe haven instead of exposing them.

Said he: "Any community that encourages these criminal tendencies must be ready, as government will invade them. So if you are encouraging this kidnapping, because when we talk about Kaiama Declaration, everybody knew that the people had focus. They did not just go and hold contractors or kidnapped white men who are working"

His made it clear that kidnapping oil workers is not part of the Niger Delta struggle hence, "those communities too must be ready to be invaded, we will send the Navy. If the community is about 500 people, we will send 500 naval personnel to stay with them; I think they will be comfortable having them".

"What is happening in the state and the Niger Delta region is another way of the youths telling those of us who are over seeing the activities of state not to think about development", he lamented.

Jonathan also stressed: "If the youths don't want development they should tell us so that at the end of the months we share the money and go to sleep because a situation where companies working , Julius Berger is working, then youths will go and kidnap staff of the those working for us is regrettable."

"In Port Harcourt they have kidnapped a German, only yesterday one of the management told me two of their people have resigned. Today I got a call from Abuja that Julius Berger is pulling out of Bayelsa and Rivers" the governor lamented.

He disclosed that already the company was to handle the East-West road dualisation from the Port Harcourt to Kaiama in the state, "but now that they are pulling out, your road is going to continue to remain bad" he told the people.

Foreign Oil Workers in Nigeria Worry About Attacks, Abductions

2006-08-11T19:36:00.000+01:00


By Gilbert da Costa Abuja, Voice of America 11 August 2006

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Militant patrols creeks of Niger Delta area of Nigeria (File photo)

Foreign oil workers in Nigeria have every reason to be worried, amid mounting attacks and abductions by militants hoping to pressure the government into sharing more of the country's oil wealth with the impoverished region. Some oil companies are reviewing their operations in the troubled region.

Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer, and derives about 95 percent of its export earnings and 40 percent of its gross domestic product from oil sales.

The current wave of attacks on the oil industry by militants in the Niger Delta has the potential of crippling the national economy.

Already, oil production is down by at least 500,000 barrels per day, and, now, foreign workers, who play a very important role in the sector, are being targeted, raising serious concerns about their personal safety.

Kelvin Ebiri, a journalist in Port Harcourt, a leading oil city in the delta, with a large expatriate community, says most foreign oil workers are jittery about the growing violence.

"There is this fear among the expatriate community, because several people have been kidnapped, and up till now, nobody has been able to say precisely where they are being kept," he said. "Last week, Wednesday, or so, they kidnapped a German, on Friday they kidnapped three Philippines, and, just yesterday, a Moroccan and a Belgian. And, up till now, nobody knows their whereabouts. This thing is raising cause for concern, and some of the white men I spoke to, they are really jittery."

At least one international oil company has announced plans to pull out of its Nigeria operations because of the violence. Others are reviewing security procedures.

The government's initiative to address years of neglect in the region has received very little support in the impoverished Niger Delta. Daniel Ebahor, head of the Niger Delta Peace Foundation, a non-governmental group, says the authorities should consider other options in dealing with the crisis.

"The issue in the Niger Delta goes beyond what people look at, it is more of a political problem," he said. "Government just has to be proactive in ensuring that people are engaged. The youths need to be engaged, and the government, too, needs to carry out a kind of reformative policy, in terms of the reorientation of the Niger Delta youths."

More than 30 oil workers have been kidnapped this year. All of them have been released after ransom was paid.

Oil Flowing Again on Bonny Island

2006-08-11T04:49:00.000+01:00

Oil has started flowing again through a Nigerian pipeline that carries Bonny Light crude produced in a joint venture by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), Nigerian oil sources said Thursday.

Shell declared force majeure on 180,000 barrels a day of oil output late July following an unexplained leak at the pipeline.

A spokeswoman for Shell in London also confirmed the pipeline was back in use Thursday.

"A temporary measure is in place and this means that oil has started flowing again," a source with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., told Dow Jones Newswires.

An NNPC marketing source also said he'd been told by Shell that it would be able to meet commitments to buyers for late August and all of September.

NNPC holds a 55% stake in the venture.

Shell's spokesperson said that eight out of the nine flow stations which had been closed due to the pipeline leak were operational and being ramped up Thursday.

She said when fully operational, the pipeline's output would reach 173,000 b/d.

The spokesperson also said work is being carried out at the ninth flow station, which would be opened at a later date. When operation the ninth flow station would boost production by an extra 7,000 b/d.

The spokesperson said there is however, no update regarding Shell's force majeure.

News that Nigerian crude oil is returning to the market should ease traders' concerns.

Ethnic disruptions in recent months have affected as much as 800,000 b/d, or a third of Nigeria's crude output.

U.S. oil prices also rallied to near record levels of $78.40/bbl Monday, after BP PLC (BP) Sunday said it began a shutdown of its Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska.

The Department of Energy also said Wednesday that petroleum inventories were drawn down more than analysts expected.

DOW JONES MARKET WATCH

More on Recent Abductions

2006-08-11T04:42:00.000+01:00

Gunmen in military fatigues seized two foreign oil workers in southern Nigeria early Thursday, the latest violence targeting the petroleum industry in Africa's largest producer, authorities said.

The workers _ a Belgian and a Moroccan _ were abducted as they traveled through the southern city of Port Harcourt, where many international energy firms make their bases, Rivers State Police Commissioner Samuel Adetuyi said.

A private security official said the captors wore camouflage uniforms in the style of Nigeria's military. The security worker, citing witnesses, spoke on condition of anonymity due to company prohibitions against speaking to reporters.

Southern Nigeria, where most of the country's crude oil is pumped, has seen an increase in violence against the petroleum industry in recent days. The attacks have forced a nearly 20 percent reduction of Nigeria's usual 2.5 million-barrel daily production, helping send crude prices soaring in international markets.

The abductions came a day after gunmen stormed a supply boat in the Gulf of Guinea heading to offshore oil rigs, kidnapping four Norwegian and Ukrainian workers in a raid on the vessel owned by a Norwegian shipping firm.

Norwegian Ambassador Tore Nedreboe said the captors apparently were not after a ransom from boat owner Trico Supply, but were using the kidnapping to broker a financial deal with a Nigerian oil company.

"This Nigerian oil company has recently concluded an agreement with a part of the local community, and the kidnappers, they want to be included in that agreement," he said.

Nedreboe would not identify the oil company or give details on what the kidnappers wanted. The Norwegian news agency NTB identified the two Norwegians as ship captain Jarle Johansen, 45, and chief machinist Roger Bjerkaas, 40.

Last week, militants in camouflage uniforms seized a German oil worker in Nigeria's troubled delta region. A group calling itself the Movement for the Niger Delta People claimed responsibility, but police said the group was unknown.

The group sent an e-mail to reporters this week containing a message purportedly written by the hostage and including a picture of a man wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans and crouching among lush vegetation. The message said the hostage was being treated well and wanted to go home.

Germany's Foreign Ministry would not confirm the information in the e-mail, saying only it was working to secure the release of the hostage.

Militants have kidnapped oil workers to bargain for a greater share of the wealth. More than 30 have been abducted this year, including three from Port Harcourt. Most of the kidnappings end peacefully.

The militants say that residents remain deeply impoverished while government officials and oil companies are growing rich.

BARELY two weeks after 16 indigenous oil workers and eight soldiers regained their freedom in the deep swamp of Bayelsa State, four expatriate oil workers-- two Norwegian and two Ukrainian nationals-- were yesterday abducted by armed youths in Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa State.

The latest incident, Vanguard learnt, occurred at about 2 a.m. at the Dolphin rig owned by Peak Petroleum, some 28 nautical miles off the Atlantic coast of Nigeria in the local government area which has been the hot bed of community agitation lately.

Security men on duty were said to have been caught napping by the youths said to have braved the turbulent ocean under the cover of darkness.

Although no life was lost in the operation during which the youths stormed the oil facility in several speedboats and whisked away their captives identified as a captain, chief officer, chief engineer and an engineer to an unknown destination, Vanguard gathered that the incident formed part of the agenda of yesterday's executive council meeting of the state government.

The abductors came from aggrieved communities the company allegedly failed to carry along following Monday's recognition of only nine communities as its hosts.

During the Monday meeting in Yenagoa, a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the company and the nine host communities of Bilabiri 1 & II, Amatu I & II, Ekeni, Ezetu I & II, Letugbene and Bisangbene in Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw council area.

It was, however, gathered that Agge, Orobiri, Azamabiri and Ogbointu communities that have been agitating to be recognised as part of the host communities were excluded by Peak Petroleum.

The MoU which is expected to last till when production commences, it was gathered, contains payment of homage to the recognised communities and employment of 28 persons from the entire communities while on their part they are expected to ensure uninterrupted and unimpeded operations of the company in the OML 122.

Contacted, the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, confirmed the incident, adding that officers from the command had been dispatched to the area.

Also, the US-owned Trico Supply confirmed the abductions. "We have had no contact with the kidnappers," Trico Supply Chairman, Bjoern Endresen, said, adding: "But we are 110 per cent certain it involves money. Western employees were singled out and taken from the ship while the 11 local crew members were unharmed.

"We are doing everything we can in coordination with the Norwegian embassy in Nigeria and others to resolve the situation," Endresen said.

Major Saheed Hameed, spokesman for Joint Task Force (JTF), the security outfit protecting oil facilities and personnel in the restive Niger Delta, said he could not immediately confirm the incident.

Since January, militants have launched violent attacks on oil facilities and personnel in the region to press demand for local control of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil and gas wealth. More than 30 expatriate oil workers have been kidnapped in the past seven months and released after spending days or sometimes weeks in captivity.

VANGUARD

More Kidnappings Today

2006-08-10T15:57:00.000+01:00

The employer of a German oil worker taken hostage last week in Nigeria said Thursday they have been in contact with the kidnappers and are confident that the incident will end with the man's safe release.

The kidnapped German contractor, whose identity has not been officially released, is "doing well" considering the circumstances, according to Herbert Bodner, chairman of Germany's Bilfinger Berger construction company, which employed the kidnapped man for the last 18 years.

Without giving additional details, Bodner said the company had been in contact with the kidnappers multiple times and that everything had been done to ensure the man's safe release.

Originally from the Bavarian city of Würzburg, the hostage said he was "alive and well," but wanted to go home, according to an e-mail released to the media on Wednesday.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Kidnappers said they wanted Bilfinger Berger to invest more in the area

"So far I have been treated well by my captors," the German man, a contractor for the Bilfinger Berger construction company. "They have provided me with mosquito nets. They have also provided me with medicines and even brought me a packet of my favorite cigarette."

The German Foreign Ministry would not confirm knowledge of the photo or the man's identity, but said its crisis response team has been in contact with the Nigerian authorities with the goal of achieving "the quickest release possible," according to a spokesman on Wednesday.

The militants holding him after his kidnapping a week ago from Port Harcourt demanded the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders being held prisoner as well as added jobs and investment in the Niger Delta region by the German captive's employer.

"We are still waiting for our demands to be met," the kidnappers said in a previous statement.

Mujahid Dokubo Asari, one of the men the previously unknown Movement for the Niger Delta People (MONDP) wants released, appealed for the German hostage to be set free.

"Asari wishes to appeal to the kidnappers to release unconditionally their hostage as he has no hand in his travails," according to a statement issued by Allen Onyema, one of Asari's associates.

Onyema added that although Asari appreciated the concern of the militants for his plight, he would prefer a peaceful means to resolve the crisis, Onyema added.

Five additional Europeans kidnapped

Bildunterschrift: Oil wealth has not lifted many Nigerians out of poverty

The past seven months have seen a wave of kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities and personnel by separatist agitators in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil and gas wealth. Rebels have often demanded a larger share of the country's profits from natural resources be returned to the public.

Most recently, a Belgian and Moroccan were kidnapped Thursday, and two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria on Wednesday, and three Filipino workers were kidnapped last week in an incident separate from the German hostage taking.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest producer and the eighth largest in the world, accounting for a daily output of 2.6 million barrels, but unrest has cut a quarter of that figure in recent months.

Two oil industry contractors, one Belgian and one Moroccan, were kidnapped from their car by armed men in Nigeria's southern city of Port Harcourt on Thursday, police said.

It was the fourth abduction in Nigeria's southern oil heartland in a week and follows a wave of militant attacks against the industry which has cut oil production in the world's eighth largest exporter by 25 percent since February.

"Two foreigners working for a company in Borokiri were kidnapped by armed men," said Samuel Agbetuyi, police commissioner for Rivers state.

A colleague at Dredging International Services Nigeria in Port Harcourt said the hostages were Belgian and Moroccan.

"They were taken from their car at 6:45. It was an armed kidnap," the colleague said, asking not to be named.

Dredging International is a unit of Belgium-based DEME Group and works as a dredging and ship services contractor to several Western oil companies in Nigeria.

Kidnappings of foreign workers are frequent in the mangrove-lined creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, which is home to all of Nigeria's oil and gas.

Militancy is fuelled by widespread feelings of injustice in the vast wetlands region where most people live in poverty despite the wealth being pumped from their ancestral lands.

Criminal gangs, sometimes involved in the large-scale theft of crude oil from pipelines, also regularly indulge in kidnapping and extortion, and it is often difficult to distinguish between the two.

A series of attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in February forced Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to evacuate hundreds of staff from the western delta, reducing output by about 500,000 barrels a day.

The group, which is a coalition of militia from across the region almost the size of England, says it wants more local control over the delta's oil resources, compensation for pollution and the release of two jailed leaders from the region.

Willbros Leaving Nigeria

2006-08-10T15:51:00.000+01:00

Citing ongoing attacks by militants, Willbros Group said Wednesday it is selling its assets and operations in Nigeria.

Willbros, which has administrative offices in Houston and headquarters in Panama, said the move is tied to an evaluation of its strategic options that started last year, which also has led it to decide to shed its Venezuelan operation.

The engineering and construction company gained attention worldwide earlier this year when nine employees were taken hostage in Nigeria. The workers were released unharmed after several weeks.

The company made the announcement in a prepared statement Wednesday that reported a net loss of $38.1 million, or $1.77 a share, including a $39 million charge for its Nigeria operations. The company's quarterly loss compares with a loss of $9.92 million, or 47 cents, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased 75 percent to $119.1 million.

Willbros said its income there was reduced by about $37 million.

Mike Curran, Willbros' chairman and chief executive, said the company will dramatically reduce its level of operations in Nigeria and focus on markets that offer better opportunities and returns, including in North America.

In its earnings report, Willbros reported the Nigeria and Venezuela assets and operations as discontinued operations.

The company said it reached a preliminary agreement to sell the Venezuelan operation in late June to an unnamed party, and it is expected to close in October. Curran said that officials concluded the spread and escalation of hostilities against oil and natural gas facilities and workers in Nigeria exceed acceptable risk levels.

"The attacks of militants have directly and indirectly affected Willbros on a continuous basis since the hostage-taking incident of Feb. 18, 2006," he said. "However, since mid-June, the situation in Nigeria has worsened, with attacks increasing throughout the country. Additional production operations in the Delta area have been, and remain, shut in."

Four More Kidnapped

2006-08-10T05:02:00.000+01:00

Two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria on Wednesday, the latest in a series of abductions in Africa's top oil producer, authorities said.

In a separate hostage crisis in another part of the oil producing Niger Delta, militants issued a photograph of their German captive and a statement purportedly written by him in which he said he was being well treated but wanted to go home.

The wave of kidnappings coincides with an upsurge in militant attacks against the oil industry which has cut oil production by 25 percent in the world's eighth largest exporter since February.

"Four foreigners were kidnapped, two Norwegians and two Ukrainians," said Hafiz Ringim, police commissioner for Bayelsa state, where Wednesday's attack happened.

"Armed men believed to be disgruntled members of the community attacked them and took them away. Right now, we have not been able to make contact with the hostages, but we are working on that."

The four work on a vessel owned by a Norwegian unit of U.S.-based Trico Marine Services Inc. (TRMA.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which services an offshore drilling rig.

Eight foreigners were kidnapped from the same rig for two days in June in a dispute with a nearby community over jobs and investment.

Kidnappings of foreign workers are frequent in the mangrove creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, which is home to all of the OPEC member nation's oil and gas.

SIGNS OF LIFE

In two separate incidents last week, the German and three Filipinos were kidnapped in another part of the delta.

The group holding the German sent an email to the media on Wednesday containing a photograph and a statement purportedly written by the captive, Guido Schiffarth of Wurzburg, Bavaria.

"So far I have been treated well by my captors. They have provided me with mosquito nets. They have also provided me with medicines and even brought me a packet of my favourite cigarette, Benson & Hedges. I am alive and well, but I want to go home," Schiffarth said.

The militants have demanded the release from jail of two ethnic Ijaw leaders and more jobs and investment by his employer, German construction company Bilfinger and Berger (GBFG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), in the delta community where it is based.

Militancy is fuelled by widespread feelings of injustice in the vast wetlands region where most people live in poverty despite the wealth being pumped from their ancestral lands.

Trico Marine Services Inc., the company that owns Trico Supply, said it had made contact with the kidnapped Norwegians and negotiations had begun for their release.

"They are well," the company said in a statement.

There was no immediate word on the fate of the Ukrainians.

Andy Oputa, a security official for Nigeria's Bayelsa State, confirmed the kidnappings and said negotiators had been sent to the Niger Delta region, where most of the crude is pumped. Another state official said the capture took place nearly 30 miles from shore, with gunmen boarding the ship as it headed to oil rigs off the West African coast.

Endresen said 11 other crew members were aboard the ship at the time of the kidnapping but he did not give more details.

"All I can tell you is that we're working hard, putting all of our efforts to solving this case," he said.

Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Frode Overland Andersen declined to comment on whether any ransom demands were made. He said the Norwegian Embassy in Abuja was working with local authorities to obtain more details on the abductions.

The kidnappings came less than a week after militants wearing camouflage uniforms took a German oil industry worker hostage, spiriting him away on a boat into Nigeria's troubled oil-rich delta region. A group calling itself the Movement for the Niger Delta People has claimed responsibility for that kidnapping, but police said the group was unknown.

Militants have kidnapped oil workers to bargain for a greater share of the wealth from Africa's largest crude producer. They argue that residents remain deeply impoverished and benefit little from oil wealth while government officials and oil companies grow rich.

More than 30 workers have been taken this year, including three from the oil-producing hub of Port Harcourt. Kidnappings and attacks have forced a nearly 20 percent reduction of Nigeria's usual 2.5 million barrel daily production, helping send crude prices soaring in international markets.

A series of attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger D (MEND) in February forced Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to evacuate hundreds of staff from the western delta, reducing output by about 500,000 barrels a day.

MEND is fighting for more local control over the delta's oil resources, compensation for pollution and the release of two jailed leaders from the region. Criminal gangs involved in the large-scale theft of crude oil from pipelines have also been involved in kidnappings, and it is often difficult to distinguish between the two.

The vast majority of kidnappings end peacefully.

From Associated Press & Rueters

Daily Champion Editorial - August 9, 2006

2006-08-10T05:00:00.000+01:00

THEN the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) last month announced that it exceeded its projected tax revenue for the first half of the year (January - June, 2006), it was ordinarily a cheering piece of news. This is because, with a projected tax revenue of N733 billion given to it in the 2006 budget for the period (Jan - June), the agency garnered a hefty N1.13 trillion. That amount represents about 39 per cent more than the projected total tax revenue for the period under review.

However, the heartwarming news from the FIRS was subdued by revelation by its executive chairman, Mrs Ifueko Omoigui, that multinational companies operating in the country have been fleecing tens of billions of naira in revenue as a result of illicit tax payments or outright tax evasion. To buttress her point, the FIRS boss revealed that a comprehensive audit report it carried on the book keeping of a multinational oil company operating offshore in the country showed a startling underpayment of N2 billion naira in one particular year alone.

This discovery, the FIRS boss lamented, has caused the country unquantifiable amount in revenue necessary to attend to the various development needs of the country. Regrettable, she said, is the fact that the delinquent multi-national firms can ill-afford to do same in their own home countries.

We are not in the least surprised by the discovery of the FIRS executive chairman. Indeed, the revelation of these tax-evading multinationals has been a constant, underhanded sharp practices perpetrated by some multinational firms in Nigeria. It is a well calculated sleeze that has been on for years undetected, and it is, as incredible as it may sound, an illicit practice done in collaboration with our own tax officials whose duty it is, primarily, to ensure that companies operating in Nigeria, whether local or foreign, comply with our tax system by paying what they are supposed to pay based on their projected earnings.

Sadly, this has not been so. Instances abound of multinational companies operating in our land that have been found cheating on this scale. Only last year (2005), one of the oil giants operating in the country was embroiled in tax evasion allegations.

The oil company in question which was dragged before the Senate Committee panel was accused of doctoring tax figures to the tune of N450.74bn in 2002 alone. The oil firm was also alleged to have evaded $1.309bn in taxes and claimed unmerited $1.9bn (US dollars), and doctored pension funds of its employees. In one instance, the FIRS reportedly recovered N12bn from five multinational firms.

In fact, the case against the frontline oil company represents the same ignominious paths which many multinational companies in Nigeria have threaded. In yet another revelation, Halliburton, a Houston, Texas, USA based oil firm last year pleaded guilty before the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it made illicit payments of N2.4m to Nigeria tax officials to enable it secure "favourable tax cuts". This is a smart but roguish term for evading appropriate tax payments to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

To be sure, the total tax value which Holliburton officials admitted they denied the coffers of Nigeria was $50m in just one year. Well, this did not happen, according to Halliburton, without the complicity of some highly-placed Nigerian businessmen. In fact, as at the time this tax and bribery scandal became a major public discourse, some of the Nigerians fingered in the "tax-evasion deal' owned up to receiving inducement. But nothing to our knowledge was done to them by way of punishment.

Even though the alarm raised by the FIRS boss is indeed disturbing, the above-mentioned instances are clear indicators that our tax collection system is either lax, or the operators have compromised themselves for personal, selfish gains. As a matter of fact, Ms Omoigui admitted that her staff should take a chunk of the blame. We agree completely that this was the case, and remains even only the reason why multinational firms fail to remit appropriate taxes.

Nonetheless, tax evasion and doctoring of tax figures are not peculiar to multinational companies. The truth is that local companies owned by Nigerians fleece as much in tax revenue as their foreign counterparts operating in Nigeria. Perhaps the recent revelation by the FIRS should act as the wake up call to reinvent our country's tax system. All should be towards making it a viable source of development fund.

This can be done through a robust legislation. In that direction, we suggest that the National Assembly should speed up the passage of the various tax reform bills currently before it. Such Bills when passed into law, should create accountability, enforce efficiency and punish corruption. This has become imperative because the indictment of officials of the relevant tax collection agencies in the country paints a true picture of where the leakage is coming from.

Until this is done, we may continue to cry foul how multinational companies are under-developing our economies through tax evasion and other allied malfeasance. To tighten these loose ends, we urge government to adequately fund FIRS. The FIRS should in turn put its own house in order, adequately train its staff and wean it from corruption. It will be the starting-point in the race of the FIRS to meet its challenges.

China Increases Nigerian Investments

2006-08-09T05:13:00.000+01:00

China's investments in Nigeria have increased by 3 billion U.S. dollars in the past three years, Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Wang Yongqiu said here on Tuesday.

Wang made the remarks during a farewell visit to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo at the State House.

Wang said the two-way trade between China and Nigeria also rosefrom 1.1 billion dollars to more than 3 billion during his tenure from 2002 to 2005.

Wang attributed the growth in trade between the two countries and China's investments in the most populous African country to joint efforts made by both the Chinese and Nigerian leaders.

He said President Obasanjo's commitment had led to "enhanced relations between us and deepened mutual trust," adding "we are now in a strategic partnership which has led to exchange of presidential, parliamentary and ministerial visits."

The Chinese outgoing ambassador also said he enjoyed his three-year tenure in Nigeria and promised to enlighten his compatriots about the country.

Earlier, Obasanjo had challenged the ambassador to encourage closer ties between the two countries.

"You now understand Nigeria better and its role in Africa, so you should encourage closer people-to-people relations between ourtwo peoples when you get back to China," he said.

Obasanjo also requested the out-going envoy to render assistance to efforts to teach Nigerians the Chinese language.

Nigeria Wants $$ From Chevron

2006-08-09T05:11:00.000+01:00

igeria's House of Representatives' committee on petroleum has slapped a $400 million fine on Chevron (CVX)Nigerian for "irregularities" in its financial reports, privately owned Channels TV reported late Tuesday.

The committee said it investigated reports of tax evasion and irregularities made against the U.S. oil company.

"Chevron was found to have inflated its community projects," Cairo Ojualogbo, the committee chairman, told Channels TV.

He said Chevron had been accused of evading $10.8 billion in taxes owed to the Nigerian government, but said this could not be substantiated.

"When the report broke out, they quickly paid $16 million into the federal government coffers," Ojualogbo said.

A consultant hired last year by a government agency probing oil companies' accounts in Nigeria had said Chevron did not pay its full obligations to the government.

Calls to Chevron officials were not answered.

New Militant Group

2006-08-09T04:44:00.000+01:00

Nigeria has continued to be a setting of foreign kidnappers. Nigeria is to remain thus if militant groups keep coming up. This time round, it is not the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) that has owned up to the kidnapping of German contractor.

Nigeria’s media received the following report after the attack."The Movement of the Niger Delta People hereby claims full responsibility for the possession and custody of Mr Didone Shephard." Didone is the German contractor who was abducted in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s new militant group demands that a former governor from this part of Nigeria and a militant be released from prison if the German is to enjoy freedom.

Nigeria’s new militant group does not need ransom. It also demands that German’s employer give local Nigerians more jobs. However, police in Nigeria claim that they know nothing about the German.

The German met his fate in Nigeria at the hands of armed militants in Nigeria’s busy Port Harcourt. Three other foreign oil workers in Nigeria were abducted just a day after.

Nigeria, Halliburton still battling

2006-08-09T04:42:00.000+01:00

A unit of Halliburton is under investigation by the UKs Serious Fraud Office over the US oil service companys part in an alleged plot to pay more than 170 mln usd of bribes to win work at a Nigerian gas plant, the Financail Times reported.

The SFO said it had carried out searches at business and residential premises as part of the probe into KBR, whose work on the project was underwritten partly by British government money.

For part of the period under investigation, Halliburton was headed by Dick Cheney, the US vice-president.

The SFO said searches were carried out on July 20 at UK residential addresses and a company office in London.

Halliburton said it continues to co-operate and is 'committed to getting resolution'. It declined further comment, the FT reported.

The Nigerian bribery allegations erupted three years ago.

Oil Price Up

2006-08-08T05:03:00.000+01:00

Crude-oil futures opened higher Monday after BP said it was shutting down a key oil field representing 8% of daily U.S. production, in a market already concerned about supply disruptions out of Nigeria and the conflict in the Middle East. Crude for September delivery was last up $1.59 at $76.35 a barrel. Natural-gas futures fell 39.6 cents to $6.85 per million British Thermal Units as a storm threat in the Gulf of Mexico evaporated and temperatures eased after a heat wave last week that sent demand for electricity soaring. Gasoline futures were up 4.75 cents at $2.279 a gallon while heating oil rose 4.04 cents to $2.13 a gallon.

Police team-ups beat Nigeria's scammers

2006-08-07T06:07:00.000+01:00

As part of BBC World Service's series on Intercontinental Cops, reporter, Jenny Chryss, explores how investigators from London and Lagos have linked up to combat corruption and fraud in Nigeria.

Globally, Nigeria has become associated with what is known as "advance fee" or 419 fraud.

Virtually anyone with an email account will be familiar with this crime, which involves sending emails or faxes to potential victims around the world, sucking them into a highly attractive but utterly false financial deal.

Back in Nigeria, the rewards are potentially highly lucrative - but now, owing to a crackdown and much-improved co-operation between police forces globally, it has become more risky for the perpetrators.

"Historically we've always had a problem getting evidence from Nigeria, but that's changing," says Detective Sergeant Mark Radford, head of the Africa desk at New Scotland Yard.

"They're keen to co-operate and bring a lot of the criminals in Nigeria to justice."

Black money

At the holding cells in the centre of the country's commercial capital, Lagos, more than 50 suspects are waiting for court appearances on 419 charges. It is a busy place.

Recently Nigeria has, for the first time ever, begun a major crackdown on all sorts of economic crime - and it is needed.

Last year it was ranked the sixth most corrupt country in the world - and that was its best rating ever.

Now, though, internet service providers who allow online fraudsters to operate will face criminal charges, while decades in jail await the scammers themselves - with little chance of early parole.

Still, with rich pickings still to exploit, Nigeria's criminals will not give in easily.

As well as the most well-known scams, others are now coming into vogue. In one - the so-called "black money" scam - people are shown what appear to be bank notes which have been dyed.

The scammer appears to show how to remove the dye, and sells the "notes" for cash. In fact, the notes are worthless waste paper.

To give credence to their operations, the warehouses and hotels Nigerians use as meeting places are usually in European cities, with London being a favourite.

Olaolu Adegbite, head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's Advance Fee Fraud section in Lagos, said one man from the US had ended up paying $2.1m after been conned in this way.

"The gentleman got convinced when he arrived in the UK and the men were well-dressed, some black, some white, and looked responsible," he said.

"He was convinced, he was carried away."

In this case the fraudster was eventually caught in Nigeria and sentenced to 342 years in jail. He must also repay the $2.1m in full.

State corruption

But there is a long way to go. Allegations of corruption go to the very highest level.

London detective Peter Clark has been trailing one Nigerian state governor, suspected of corruption in Nigeria and money-laundering in London, since January 2004.

Only when he began delving into what initially was a credit card fraud case that he realised how significant it might prove to be, when it became apparent that millions of pounds had been secretly moved from Nigeria into London banks.

For years, widespread corruption has been blamed for many of Nigeria's ills. Schools, hospitals and public services are falling far short of what could be expected of a country that is oil-rich and, in many areas, highly fertile.

And there now growing evidence that the people living in Nigeria's poor Central Plateau state are worse off even than they should be, because, it is alleged, the governor has siphoned off millions of pounds from the public purse.

Specifically, it is claimed he redirected at least £6m meant for environmental improvements into his own bank accounts.

"Every so often states make a bid to the federal government for extra works within their state - and what we've been able to find out is that as a result of cheques being issued for that work, the state governor basically steals that cheque," detective Clark said.

"We've identified that portions of that cheque have found their way into London bank accounts."

However, the governor of Central Plateau continues to rule because the assembly here has elected to keep him in office, where he has immunity from prosecution.

Although he declined to be interviewed by the BBC, the speaker of the assembly, Simon Lalong, told us the money allocated to the central plateau had been properly spent.

"We invited the EFCC to come and prove the allegations - because what we had at first was just paper telling us this is the bundle of allegations against his Excellency, including the jumping of bail," he said.

"They wrote and said this is the allegation, but we said, 'what are the facts?'"

In Nigeria it is being reported that 24 of the country's 36 state governors are now under investigation.

Allowing these men to go free that is not an option for the EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu.

"If this country is going to change, if anything is going to work, we have to fight corruption, we have to establish rule of law and order," he says.

"We cannot do it alone, because we are fighting the power, the authority, those with the money, and we need those who are good, who understands the need of such things to stand by us."

BBC NEWS

Abducted Worker Still Missing

2006-08-07T04:58:00.000+01:00

A German oil worker remained in the hands of his Nigerian captors on Sunday three days after he was abducted in the Niger Delta town of Port Harcourt.

No group has claimed responsibility for seizing the German, who had been in Nigeria for three years with the gas and oil services firm Bilfinger Berger.

Nigerian authorities expanded their search for the missing man on Sunday, a day after local police expressed optimism that he would soon be free.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Berlin said German officials were in close contact with Nigerian authorities, but declined to provide details of the investigations.

There has been a spate of abductions of foreign oil workers in Nigeria this year, mostly by groups demanding a greater share of the oil revenue for the local Niger Delta population.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer, but a majority of its population lives in poverty.

Two German oil workers were abducted in Nigeria in June last year, but freed after three days in captivity.

German Businessman, Filipino Oil Workers Kidnapped

2006-08-06T05:06:00.000+01:00

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Three Filipinos working for a U.S. oil contractor were kidnapped in southern Nigeria early Friday, a day after a German was abducted in the region where oil revenue has caused strife between multinational companies and local communities.

Four armed men blocked the workers' vehicle on the road, fired in the air and then took them hostage, according to a colleague who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The men's employer, Moon Township, Pennsylvania-based Michael Baker Corp., said they work for its Baker Energy unit, which builds structures for energy companies.

Kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities have become common in the West African country's southern delta. The German taken Thursday was employed by Mannheim, Germany-based construction giant Bilfinger Berger AG, which was contracted to build facilities for an international oil company. He was taken from his jeep and forced into a boat by 10 attackers, according to Barasua.

The colleague said the Filipinos worked for U.S. construction firm Baker Hughes Inc., but a spokesman for the Houston-based company, Gene Shiels, said they did not.

Shiels said two other companies operating in Nigeria had similar names but were not connected to Baker Hughes.

No group claimed responsibility for the abduction. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has kidnapped several foreigners in the past, said it was not involved.

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and a major supplier to the United States.

Attacks on oil pipelines and kidnappings by militants in the delta have cut oil production by more than 25 percent this year, adding to the upward pressure on world prices. The country normally produces about 2.5 million barrels a day.

New Abductions

2006-08-06T04:54:00.000+01:00

There are reports of another armed attack against an unidentified installation of the Shell oil giant in the State of Imo.

Still no contact between Nigerian authorities and abductors of three Filipinos and a German, all employees of oil firms in the oil-rich Niger Delta southern region.

Meanwhile, the local Guardian newspaper reported another armed attack against an unidentified installation of the Shell oil giant in the State of Imo.

According to the paper, five employees of the SuryCom, a company that works with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDL), were killed in the attack, on which there are no further details.

As reported by local press, no official claim of responsibility for yesterday's abduction has been received, which seems to exclude the MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), the most political among the numerous groups active in the area.

The kidnappings of oil workers, attacks and sabotage of oil interests are frequent in the Niger Delta region, where for years local groups have been battling for a more equal distribution of oil proceeds.

The abduction of workers of oil multinationals is used as a political weapon by groups that demand major development in the southern regions, and as a key source of income by criminal gangs that normally release the hostages on payment of a ransom.

Nigerian authorities are working with British and Philippines officials to attempt to locate the 4 foreigners.

AGIP Blamed for Pollution

2006-08-01T15:10:00.000+01:00

The smouldering crises in the Niger Delta may take a new and dangerous turn as the five towns that makeup the Brass kingdomin Bayelsa State take on the Italian oil giantAgip Nigeria Limited over the incessant spill of oil in their waters.

The communities who have over the years appealed to Agip toseize spilling oil on their waters are insensed to take on the oil company after the recent oil spill which occured at the Agip export terminal at Spiff Town, in Twon Brass, in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

Recent spill at the Agip canal in the area is so monumental that aquatic lives have been ruined as well as the economic mainstay of the people asmostof them arefishermen and women.

When journalists visited the town over the weekend the spill at the canal which have now flowed into the ajoining rivers are so thick and heavy that no aquaticlive can survive. As at Saturday, dead fished floted on the water while the bank of the river and its vegitation have started to die and wither.

Even the speed boats which are the major transport system in the area now have hard time navigating on the oil water because of the thick slugde, while visitors are residentsnowclose their windows and doors constantky toavoid the toxic smell of the oill spill..

The communities told journalists that this not the first time Agip will be spilling oill into their waters.

According to the traditional ruler of Spiff Town, His Royal Highness Serena Dokubo-Spiff, the oil company have in the past silled oilinto the waters and when the community confront the management they will say it was water and may be settle some of the chiefs and the youth atthe back while they continue their "wicked attitude."

He said that the last week spill was so monumental that some well meaning members of community will not standby and watch a company ruin the economic mainstay ofthe people as well as their health.

Dokubo-Spiff therefore warned Agip to restore their environmet as it was before, close the canal or seize henceforth to dislogde or spill oil on the water as well as commence immediately activities that would see that the recent spilled is cleaned up immediately. He also said that the company will pay compensation or restitution to the community and not the former tactics of settling some high placed chiefs and and youth in the town with pittance.

Dokubo-Spiffand some of his chiefs further warned that if the company failed to comply with their demands they may not henceforth restrain the angry youths, whilethe communities group oflawyers may proceed with multiple legal siutes againstthe company.

"The spill from the Agip flow station started long time agoand gradually.When it became too noticable and the communiities agitated, the company will select some few influencialpeople and youths and settle them, the agitation would die down while the company continue their neferous activities. But this time around, the statusquo will not be tolerated because its the life of the people that is at stake," Dokubo-Spiff said.

He said that the the recent spill is is what the communities can not ignore anymore. "My people are fishermen because of the spill over the years you cannot get the fish tom catch. The fish andother acquaticlives have either died or migrated to other waters because of the spill. Fish which is also the major food areexpensive tobuy. This is the predicament we now face," he added.

ElderEldmond Yaro, chairman, council of Elders of Twon Brass said for "aresponsible company to watch this kind of environmental destruction happen without careingmorminding its consequences is wicked and insensitive to the plight of the community.

"We aredying in silence eventhough the Federal Government dont know whether we are existing. We produce the wealth of the country and now we dont have drinking water, the one we drink is now polluted by Agip and we cannot also get fish forour dinner. What kind of country is this"? he querried.

Chief Dokubo-Spiff said that the community last week protested to Agip on the recent spill which was followed by their usual denial acceptance, saying that the spill was due toa faulty pipe atthe flow station.

AGIP Workers Freed

2006-08-01T15:09:00.000+01:00

Sixteen workers of Nigeria's Agip Oil Co., a unit of Eni SpA (E), and eight soldiers captured and held by Niger Delta militants at a flow station belonging to the company have been released, the News Agency of Nigeria reported Sunday.

The workers and soldiers were released early Sunday following negotiations involving officials of Bayelsa State, Agbainbiri community and Agip, the report said.

The attack late Tuesday on the Agbainbiri flow station had forced Agip to shut in 35,000 barrels a day of crude oil.