The Nation Newspaper

Tag: threatens

  • Okorocha threatens to revoke N1.3b contract

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha and the Managing Director of Nnutouch Global Ventures Osita Okereke are spoiling for war over Okorocha’s resolve to terminate a N1.3billion project awarded to the firm.

    The government awarded Nnutouch Global Ventures the contract for the construction of the Judicial Commission Headquarters building in April last year.

    But a year after the contract was awarded, the governor, who visited the site recently, was shocked to discover that the building, which was billed to be delivered in April, was still at the foundation level even after the firm was mobilised for the job.

    Okorocha threatened to revoke the contract and re-award it to other contractors.

    But Okereke yesterday dared the governor while speaking with reporters in Owerri, the state capital.

    He blamed the government for the delay in the execution of the project, stating that the government had agreed to pay 40 per cent upfront as contained in the contractual agreement entered into between his company and the Ministry of Justice.

    “As stipulated in the contract agreement, the government was supposed to pay 40 per cent upfront but the governor did not comply.

    “Instead, it paid 15 per cent totalling about N168 million,” he said.

    “After payment, the company surveyed and cleared the site and the project is still at the foundation level since August last year because no dime has been paid by the government.

    “After all this, it will be callous and inhumane for the governor to visit the site and threaten to revoke the contract even when he’s aware that the government has not paid the company what is due to it.”

    The Special Assistant to the governor on Media, Ebere Uzoukwa, described the allegation as laughable.

    He said: “I won’t want to join issues with a man whose character is well known to the people.

    “The governor has never collected a dime from any contractor and will never do.

    “He has legitimate means of making money, his businesses are still running.

    So if Okereke has any contract with the government he should execute it and stop beating about the bush or else we will expose him.”

     

  • Heart disease threatens baby’s life

    Oluwanifemi Aisha Abdulazeez was born hale and hearty two years ago. Sadly, today, the diseased condition of her tender heart has become a source of heartache for her parents. With their hearts in their mouths, they are running from pillar to post in frantic bid to make her live.

    Her parents, it was learnt, treated friends and relations to a lavish party at their Oyo State home to celebrate her birth. Unknown to them, however, her heart was harbouring a disease that would later rend their hearts.

    Recently, experts at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, after some diagnoses, gave a startling disclosure: Little Oluwanifemi has a case of Congenital Heart Disease (Atria abnormality, right enlargement and left ventricular hypertrophy).

    The consultant doctor handling her case, Dr. Barakat Adeola Animashaun (Consultant Paediatrics/Paediatric Cardiologist) at the hospital, after a thorough study of her condition, gave a prescription: She must be taken to India for urgent surgery.

    The total bill for the surgery and travelling expenses, The Nation learnt, is about N1.8 million.

    “This surgery has to be done to avoid dangerous exacerbation of her case. Breathing has become too tough for her. We don’t know what to do to raise that kind of money. This is why I resorted to crying out as the last option for her to get assistance from kind-hearted Nigerians, organisations or government. She needs urgent attention. We need to be helped to give her an opportunity to live well.

    No amount is too small from anybody,” said her embattled mother, Omolara Akinsulire.

    She gave her Access Bank account under the name, Akinsulire Omolara, with account number, 0037313739, for the attention of “whoever God pleases to use to save my baby’s life.”

    However, a group, The Nation learnt, last night, had donated N1.7 million. Now, all the family needs is N100,000.

  • Emergency threatens telecoms revenue

    Emergency threatens telecoms revenue

    The dusty, remote spot in Nigeria’s far northeast where the military says insurgents operated a major camp is now little more than burnt-out cars, strewn trash and unanswered questions.

    More than three weeks into a military offensive seeking to end a years-long insurgency by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Nigeria has claimed important successes, but the truth is difficult to determine.

    It has denied killing civilians, though it declines to provide numbers or details on casualties.

    Soldiers say Boko Haram members have “scattered” in areas where the army has pushed them out, but they cannot say where, only that “hundreds” have been arrested.

    Thousands of residents have fled into neighbouring Niger and Cameroon, and some allege soldiers indiscriminately killed civilians in raids before the offensive officially began. The military denies this.

    Mobile phone lines have been cut in much of the region since the start of the offensive on May 15 and visiting remote areas independently is difficult if not impossible.

    Journalists recently visited the deserted Boko Haram “camp” soldiers say they chased insurgents away from near the village of Kirenowa as part of a tightly orchestrated military tour.

    The tour wound into a patch of the semi-desert northeast, where acacia trees and shrubs dot the dry, flat landscape along with occasional villages of brick houses with thatch roofs.

    Military officials have at times provided conflicting details of operations, including involving the camp near Kirenowa, raising further questions over which version if any is correct.

    In 2009, Nigeria launched a brutal offensive against Boko Haram that killed some 800 people and forced the group underground for more than a year — but they returned with even deadlier attacks.

    This time the security operation “involved not just the military but the security agencies of the country,” Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, a defence spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.

    “The network this time is perfect, I mean near perfect, in the sense that the operation was planned to ensure their bases were dislocated — not just dislocated but completely wiped out.”

    Some say the offensive may have obliterated the possibility of legitimate dialogue, while others have expressed doubts that a military operation could lead to lasting peace.

    “The entire Chinese army cannot solve this problem,” said Bulama Mali Gubio, spokesman for an influential elders’ forum in Nigeria’s Borno state, Boko Haram’s original home base.

    Military abuse accusations

    Boko Haram’s insurgency has been under way since 2009, but a series of particularly violent events preceded President Goodluck Jonathan’s state of emergency declaration on May 14 in the volatile northeast of Africa’s most populous nation.

    In April, the military faced accusations of major abuses after nearly 200 people were left dead in the town of Baga, with residents alleging soldiers shot civilians and set fire to much of the community.

    The Red Cross put the death toll at 187, but the military insisted that only 37 people died in the fighting, while saying insurgents caused the blazes.

    A May 7 attack in Bama saw insurgents disguised in military uniforms break into a prison and attack several government buildings, leaving 55 people dead. Nigerian authorities later said they freed three women and six children abducted by Boko Haram during the attack.

    However, there were also accusations of military abuses in Bama. Ali Elhadji, a 56-year-old who fled back to his parents’ home village in Cameroon, Gance, said Boko Haram had spread violence in Bama and soldiers brutally retaliated.

    He said soldiers arrived several weeks before the May 15 start of the offensive and killed indiscriminately.

    “They killed all those who appeared young and who they crossed in the streets,” he told AFP recently in Gance. “They killed many innocents.”

    There is no question that the insurgency mainly in Nigeria’s deeply impoverished north has been brutal.

    Boko Haram is blamed for hundreds of deaths through suicide attacks, targeted killings, car bombings and other means.

    In declaring the state of emergency, the president said the group had taken over pockets of territory in the remote northeast.

    Soldiers said the extremists even raised their own flags in the Marte area.

    At the same time, the military’s response to the insurgency over the last several years has come under heavy criticism, with widespread accusations of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions.

    Diplomats and analysts have long said a military solution alone is unlikely to resolve the problem, stressing that conditions in the severely underdeveloped north must be addressed.

    The government in Africa’s largest oil producer has more recently sought to portray itself as offering a carrot-and-stick approach, carrying out the offensive but also forming a panel to look at possibilities for offering an amnesty to insurgents.

    It recently released 58 women and children who had been held in connection with the insurgency. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had demanded that the government release the wives and children of its members.

    But with the offensive grinding on and its details unclear, it is difficult to know what effect if any such moves have had.

    “Is it dialogue with the people you are pursuing with troops, with armoured tanks and with fighter jets?” Gubio said. “Are these the people you are trying to give amnesty to?”

  • Falana threatens suit over Lemu’s 2011 violence report

    Lagos lawyer Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) yesterday asked the Federal Government to provide information on the recommendations of the Shiekh Ahmed Lemu Committee on the 2011 political violence across the country.

    The request was contained in a letter the frontline lawyer wrote to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim.

    In the letter, entitled: “Request for information on the implementation of the report of the Sheikh Ahmed Panel on the 2011 political violence disturbances”, Falana said he would take legal action against relevant public officers and agencies, if information was not provided within seven days.

    “Take notice that if you fail or refuse to accede to our request within seven days of the receipt of this letter, we shall not hesitate to initiate civil and criminal prosecution against the relevant public officers and agencies forthwith, in line with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011,” he warned.

    The Senior Advocate of Nigeria explained that he was compelled to seek information on the report because nothing appeared to have been done on it since the government accepted the report and issued a White Paper on it last August, particularly on the 943 people that were killed, with 838 injured.

    The letter reads: “The announcement of the result of the presidential election in April 2011 was greeted with violence and civil disturbances in some states in the northern part of the country.

    “As soon as the situation was brought under control, the Federal Government instituted a panel of enquiry, headed by Sheik Ahmed Lemu, to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the political violence.

    “Upon the conclusion of its assignment, the panel submitted its report to President Goodluck Jonathan in September 2011. Thereafter, the Federal Government studied the report and issued a White Paper on it in May 2012.

    “With respect to the 943 people who were killed and the 838 others, who were injured in the violence, the Federal Government undertook to ‘work out the level of assistance to the victims and directs the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation to double their efforts in apprehending and prosecuting the perpetrators.

    “In order to deal with political thuggery, electoral fraud, political terrorism and other electoral offences, the Attorney-General of the Federation was directed to take necessary action to establish ‘an autonomous and constitutionally recognised Electoral Offences Tribunal’. Both the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Inspector-General of Police were directed to ensure the prosecution of the 626 suspects, who were apprehended by security agencies during the crisis.

    “Many other officials and agencies of the Federal Government were also directed to carry out specific assignments to forestall future recurrence of political violence in the country.

    “It is significant to note that the Federal Government accepted the recommendation of the panel to ‘review all relevant reports of which the government’s views were not published as well as those which the government published its views but not implemented’ in respect of the reports of many previous panels set up in the past.

  • MEND threatens to bomb mosques, hajj camps, clerics

    MEND threatens to bomb mosques, hajj camps, clerics

    BARELY a week after it claimed responsibility for the killing of 12 policemen in Bayelsa State, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has served another threat notice.

    It plans to launch a bombing campaign against mosques and Islamic institutions in what it tagged “Operation Barbarossa”.

    “The bombings of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade,” its spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mailed statement.

    According to the statement, Operation Barbarossa will be launched on May 31.

    MEND, however, gave a condition for a ceasefire – intervention of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Catholic Church and Henry Okah, who is in a South African prison.

    The militant group at the weekend stepped up its promised attacks in the oil-rich Niger Delta region through its “Hurricane Exodus”.

    It claimed to have destroyed the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited’s (SPDC’s) Well 62 at Ewellesuo comminity in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    Jomo Gbomo said his group was proposing Operation Babarossa to save Christianity from extinction in the country.

    The latest threat by the militant group followed last Thursday’s rejection by Boko Haram of the proposed amnesty being considered by the Federal Government.

    Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau insisted that the fundamentalist sect had not done anything wrong to warrant amnesty from the government.

    MEND’s latest attack on Shell’s facility and threat to counter Boko Haram’s insurgency came barely one week after its fighters claimed responsibility for the death of 12 policemen on the waterways of Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    The MEND’s statement reads: “On behalf of the hapless Christian population in Nigeria, MEND will from Friday, May 31, 2013, embark on a crusade to save Christianity in Nigeria from annihilation.

    “The bombings of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade, codenamed Operation Barbarossa.

    “This campaign will not in any way interfere with the ongoing ‘Hurricane Exodus’ – which on Saturday, April 13, 2013, at about 01:00 Hrs, swept through the Ewellesuo comminity, Nembe, Bayelsa State, leaving the destruction of Well 62, belonging to Shell Petroleum in its wake.

    “We may only consider a ceasefire of Operation Barbarossa if the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Catholic Church and Henry Okah, one of the few leaders in the Niger Delta region we respect for his integrity, intervene.

    “Also, the assurance for a cessation of hostilities targeted at Christians in their places of worship, made privately or publicly by the real Boko Haram leadership will make us call off this crusade.

    “We have no problems with their (Boko Haram sect’s) attacks on security agencies, including the prisons, for their role in extra-judicial killings, torture, deceit and corruption.”

    A notable Muslim cleric and President of Delta Muslim Council, Alhaji Mumakai Unagha, yesterday cautioned MEND against carrying out its threat to attack mosques and Muslims in the region.

    Unagha, who was reacting to the threat by MEND to unleash mayhem on mosques and Islamic institutions in the Niger Delta to counter the onslaught of Boko Haram in the North, described Boko Haram as not a Muslim group.

    He cautioned the group on the call for the assassination of Muslim clerics, warning that such action could promote religious war.

    Unagha said: “MEND’s is myopic and a deviation from their struggle. They were complaining of marginalisation and the President today is a Niger Deltan. They should focus their anger on the right channel.”

    Besides, Unagha noted that attacks by Muslims have felt the pangs of Boko Haram’s onslaught, stressing that even the Emir of Kano, a staunch Muslim was attacked by the group, while scores of Muslims were also killed in the Kano bus attack.

    “I am a Muslim, Asari Dokubor is also a Muslim and we have large Muslim communities in the Niger Delta and the West. This is not a communal clash. If they go ahead with their threat, they would have killed the essence of the struggle.

    “Was it Muslims that jailed Henry Okah or the other agitators?”

  • Henry Okah: MEND threatens to relaunch attacks tomorrow

    Henry Okah: MEND threatens to relaunch attacks tomorrow

    WILL the peace in oil-rich Niger Delta be disrupted again?

    The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) threatened yesterday to launch what it called “a plague of sustained attacks, codenamed: Hurricane Exodus, as from tomorrow.

    But the Joint Task Force (JTF) warned the group against engaging in any form of confrontation with security operatives.

    The outlawed militants’ plan is to protest the sentencing of one of its leaders – Henry Okah- to a 24-year jail term in a South African court over the October 1, 2010 twin-bomb blasts at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

    Twelve persons died in the blasts that disrupted the country’s golden independence anniversary.

    Okah, who hails from Amassoma in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

    His claim countered the President’s statement that MEND was not the master-mind and that the Federal Government knew the promoters of the act.

    MEND, in an online statement issued by Jomo Gbomo, declared that the attacks to be launched by “00.00 hrs” (midnight) tomorrow, would be sustained until the Federal Government an apologies and shows willingness for talks with the Boko Haram sect.

    The statement reads: “After a careful deliberation and other considerations, with effect from 00:00 hrs, Friday, 05 April, 2013, the MEND will commence with a plague of sustained attacks codenamed Hurricane Exodus.

    “Hurricane Exodus is a direct repercussion of a forged threat letter, contrived by the Nigerian and South African governments, purporting to have originated from MEND. The fake letter was used as evidence against Henry Okah, for which a thirteen-year sentence was passed.

    “To make matters worse, the prosecution’s second witness, Mr. Sele Victor-Ben (aka Boyloaf, ex-militant leader from Bayelsa State) exclaimed in court that the letter was fake, after failing to catch the prosecutor’s eye, who wanted him to lie under oath.

    “We are now determined to conjure this imaginary trumped-up threat into a painful reality.”

    Jomo Gbomo had, immediately after the March 26 sentencing of Okah issued an online statement, saying MEND was not surprised but disappointed with the South African court’s verdict.

    It said that the court allowed itself to be compromised by the “highly-corrupt Nigerian government”.

    It said: “MEND received with incredulity, the 24-year sentence planned on Henry Okah, after a sham trial in a South African kangaroo court.

    “We are disappointed, but not surprised that the South African judiciary has allowed itself to be compromised by the highly-corrupt Nigerian government.

    “The governments of South Africa and Nigeria should realise that this planned sentencing of Henry Okah would not in any way, shape or form, change our struggle, as we will remain dedicated to our cause, until we achieve full justice and emancipation for the Niger Delta and its people.”

  • ‘How climate change threatens food security’

    Policies on food security do not focus enough on ensuring how poor people can access and afford food, especially in urban areas, said a report published by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

    It warned that climate change would only make the policy gap worse, because its impacts will affect not only harvests, but also the systems that people use to transport, store, buy and sell food.

    “Food security is back on the agenda, thanks to rising prices and the threat that climate change poses to agricultural production,” said the report’s author, Dr Cecilia Tacoli.

    He said the policies that focus on rural food production alone will not tackle the rising food insecurity in urban areas, but must include policies that improve poor people’s ability to access and afford food, especially in urban areas.”

    The report noted that since most people in urban areas must buy their food from the rural farmers for them to survive any climate-induced disruption to food production, transport and storage – either in the urban area itself or in distant farmland – can affect food supplies and prices in urban areas.

    The recent flooding in the country affected many rural poor and their farmlands, though some state governments have provided some monetary assistance to some of the affected people, yet nothing has been done for the urban poor, who by extension may be more affected in terms of not having enough fund to buy food stuffs which prices are on the rise.

    The study regretted that most government policises that aim to increase food security focus solely on boosting production from farms and fisheries in rural areas without incorpoarting thelogistics of preservation and transportation.

    “The journey that food takes from a rural producer to an urban consumer involves many steps,” Tacoli, said, adding that the food must travel through formal and informal systems, as it is stored, distributed and sold. Each one of these steps is a point of potential vulnerability to climate change. For consumers, this will mean sharp and sudden increases in food prices,” he said.

    The report also highlighted the link between income poverty and food insecurity in urban areas, saying for most low-income urban citizens, food represents a sizeable portion of the money they spend. Even small increases in price would therefore have big impacts of food security, with citizens reducing the amount and quality of the food they buy.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Group threatens showdown over oil blocks

    THE Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC) at the weekend threatened a showdown, following a report that 83 percent of oil blocks are owned by northerners.

    The group urged President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to revoke and re-allocate the oil blocks.

    A statement by the group’s President, Nelly Emma, Secretary John Sailor and Public Relations Officer Stanley Mukoro urged the President and the minister to address the issue with urgency.

    The group said the percentage of oil blocks owned by northerners was unacceptable to the people.

    It lamented that urgent steps must be taken by the President and the minister to investigatethe report.

    “The oil blocks should be revoked and reviewed or any other block to be given out from today should be given to the people from the region.

    “The owner of the resources must be respected and we may be forced to ask for total control of our resources.

    “We are set to control our God-given resources by ourselves and nobody will drill any oil in the Niger Delta, if this situation is allowed to continue.

    “We are demanding that the President revokes all oil blocks in the country.”

  • Shell threatens shutdown over oil thefts

    Shell threatens shutdown over oil thefts

    Oil giant Shell is threatening to shut down its operations, following massive crude oil thefts and bunkering in the Niger Delta.

    The Managing Director of the Anglo/Dutch company, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, said: “We have now witnessed a significant upsurge in the activities of crude oil thieves. The situation in the last few weeks is unprecedented. The volume (of crude oil) being stolen is the highest in the last three years. Over 60, 000 barrels per day from Shell alone. So, that, for me, is a great concern.

    “Over time, this whole crime has got a lot more sophisticated and you could see that the perpetrators are now setting up barge building yards; they are setting up storage facilities; they are setting up tank farms for storing the crude oil, prior to shipping out.”

    Sunmonu, who spoke to reporters in Port Harcourt yesterday, did not blame it all on the oil communities. He said: “This (oil theft/illegal bunkering/illegal refining) is beyond communities. This is well-funded and heavily-armed gangs. What type of collaboration with communities will help you against people carrying guns, people who are very well armed? It is a reality that we have to face. You cannot even put the poor boys in the communities at risk.

    “They (the Joint Task Force (JF) operatives) need to step up their game. If you look at what happened between July, August and November and probably December last year, we saw a significant drop in the amount of crude oil that was being stolen. But in January and February this year, it has gone back up.

    “So, that is a challenge for the JTF to also look into. I mean, let us not underestimate the cleverness of the people who are perpetrating this act. I have always said with 6, 000-kilometre network of flow-lines and pipelines, even if you throw the entire Nigerian army into the creeks, it is not going to solve the problem.

    “So, I am sure these guys are monitoring what is going on. They are moving to areas of resistance. So, it is a combination of things, but certainly we have seen that when the JTF really went after it, we got results.

    “It is very clear to me that this is not just an act by desperate individuals trying to make a living. This certainly is a well-funded criminal activity, probably involving international syndicates. We are in a crisis. We are in a crisis as a country, because this is something which is beyond the capacity of any individual company or beyond the capacity of a country to solve.

    “We really need concerted efforts locally, nationally and internationally to actually get this under control. It is really going to cause a big devastation, but I really worry about crude oil theft. Frankly speaking, my worry is not about the economy per se; the economy itself is huge, but I worry more about the devastation.

    “The devastation for the people of Niger Delta, the destruction it will cause to the social and environmental aspects of the people of the Niger Delta and to Nigeria as a whole. We are in a crisis and I cannot as MD of SPDC, in all good conscience, just continue to put my head in the sand.

    “This is really getting to the crunch, I must say. It is getting to the crunch, that rather than allow people to continue to attack my pipelines and devastate the environment, I may actually consider shutting-in the pipeline completely. So, it is getting to that crunch point and I hope that every hand will really join us in actually getting this under control.”

    Sunmonu lauded the commitment of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to tackling crude oil theft in the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria.

    The illegal bunkering points are said to be close to JTF’s outposts. At such places, stolen crude oil is refined to produce mostly diesel.

    All the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta are said to be losing thousands of barrels of crude oil and huge revenue.

    In Nembe creeks in Bayelsa State, Krakrama and Awoba in Kalabari axis of Rivers State, as well as areas close to coastal Bonny, also in Rivers State and other parts of the Niger Delta, the illegal bunkerers and oil thieves are having a field day.

    SPDC, the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Chevron, Mobil, Addax and other companies are badly affected by the activities of the criminals.

    JTF spokesman Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu denied its operatives’ involvement in the crime. He said Operation Pulo (oil) Shield had been combating oil theft and illegal bunkering.

    Most hit by the illegal bunkering is SPDC’s Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL), resulting in frequent production shutdown and massive oil spills.

    Between February 22 and 25, 12 Shell’s flow stations producing into the NCTL, were shut down by safety systems three times, due to oil theft. Each incident resulted in deferment of 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

    Investigations also revealed that 95 per cent of the revenue from each barrel of crude oil goes to the Federal Government. The continuous theft has an immediate impact on the economy, with the activities of the criminals being a serious attack on the people, the economy and the environment.

    The NCTL was replaced in 2010, at $1.1 billion, but the new line has been repeatedly targeted by crude thieves. This forced a shut down for one month in December, 2011, following a spill caused by two failed crude theft connections.

    When the NCTL was reopened in January, last year, it also suffered multiple trips, caused by pressure drops, resulting from illegal off-take. The trunkline was eventually shut down on May 2, last year to allow for the removal of more than 50 crude theft points.

    It was also gathered that last month, thieves drilled a hole on SPDC’s gas pipeline, which was buried underground, some two kilometres from Soku gas plant in Rivers State. It was shut down for repair, with force majeure declared on gas supplies to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company in Bonny on February 5.

    In 2012, sabotage and crude oil theft were the causes of 24,500 barrels spilled from SPDC facilities from almost 140 incidents, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total spilled volume during the period.

    The spokesman of the security outfit in the Niger Delta also said: “JTF is fighting a good fight in combating the hydra-headed menace of crude oil theft and illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta. This is evident in the number of successful interceptions and arrests that we have made, not only in the immediate past year (2012), but even in the two months that we have spent in this year.

    “Last year alone, 7,585 anti-illegal bunkering patrols were conducted. 18 vessels and 1,945 suspects were arrested; 4,349 illegal crude oil distilleries were destroyed. Also destroyed were 133 barges, 1,215 open-wooden boats (Cotonu boats), 187 oil theft tanker trucks, 178 illegally-distilled fuel dumps and 5,574 surface tanks.

    “In addition, 36,504 drums of distilled petroleum products, 638 pumping machines and 326 outboard engines were seized. JTF is not relenting. So far, in 2013, we have arrested 260 suspects, eight vessels, nine barges and 90 open-wooden barges. We have scuttled 452 distilleries/cooking spots of stolen crude oil.

    “It is, therefore, quite difficult to reconcile the upsurge spoken of, given these achievements. Our patrol troops have often times reported incidents of ruptures on the pipelines, whenever they find one and, as we speak, there are still a good number of those ruptures left unclamped in Dasaba and Mekakiri creeks.”

    Lt. Col. Nwachukwu added that the JTF did not have the manpower to put operatives permanently on over 6,000-kilometre pipelines, mostly in the mangroves.

  • Boko Haram threatens to kill abducted French family

    Boko Haram threatens to kill abducted French family

    Gunmen claiming to be members of Boko Haram threatened yesterday to kill a kidnapped French family of seven, if authorities in Nigeria and Cameroun do not release detained Muslim militants.

    Yesterday, North’s governors urged the fundamentalist group and its cohorts Ansaru to lay down their arms.

    French ministers said they believed the three adults and four children snatched in Cameroon’s far north, near Borno State border last Tuesday, were being held by Boko Haram which has killed hundreds in their campaign to carve out an Islamist state in Nigeria.

    The first sign of the family since they were captured came in a video posted on YouTube in which they appeared surrounded by three gunmen wearing turbans and dressed in camouflage.

    “We have been taken by Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad,” one of the male hostages said in the video, referring to the name in Arabic of Boko Haram.

    “They want the liberation of their brothers in Cameroon and their women imprisoned in Nigeria,” the man added, speaking in French as he sat on the floor beside another man, a veiled woman and four children.

    “A video of the French family kidnapped in northern Cameroon last Tuesday has just been posted by Boko Haram,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. “These images are terribly shocking and show a cruelty without limits.”

    The hostage-taking highlighted the risk to French citizens after France sent thousands of troops into Mali last month to oust al Qaeda-linked Islamists operating in the north.

    “The president of France has launched a war on Islam and we are fighting it everywhere,” said one of the apparent kidnappers, speaking in Arabic and identifying himself as a member of Boko Haram. “Implement our demands. If you leave out even one, we will kill these people.”

    Boko Haram has previously posted videos in Hausa, but the black and white flag that hung behind the hostages in the released video is more associated with al Qaeda-linked groups.

    A spokesman for Boko Haram had denied any connection with the kidnapping at the weekend.

    However, security experts say Boko Haram is made up of multiple cells, without a defined command structure.

    The militant group is known to have had some links to al Qaeda factions in North Africa and Mali, but experts say they appear limited for now.

    Cameroon’s Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said he could not comment because his government was not aware of the video.