September 7, 2011

By Emma Amaize & Akpokona Omafuaire

Re-posted from Vanguard Media

WARRI-HUNDREDS of placard-carrying women, from about 10 Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, yesterday, laid siege to the project site of Chevron Nigeria Limited at Chanomi Creek and disrupted the laying of pipelines for the multi-billon dollars Escravos Gas to Liquid project.

The workers of an indigenous service company, Fenog Nigeria Limited, handling the project were helpless as the women refused to vacate the site, while soldiers guarding them looked on.

The women, from Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Benikrukru, Kurutie, Kunukunuma, Azama, Igoba, Pepe-Ama, Tebizon, Kokodiagbene communities, led by Mrs. Comfort Oguma, said both the Federal Government and Chevron deceived them and demanded that all pre-contract agreements be fulfilled.

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Image: Oporoza, Niger Delta, Image source: Sweet Crude

‘Nigeria loses 300,000 barrels of oil daily’, by Roseline Okere, The Guardian Nigeria, Monday, 04 July 2011

Former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, photo: The Guardian Nigeria

DPR raises concern over depleting reserves

DESPITE efforts of the Federal Government   to check some cartels that are involved in oil theft, especially in the Niger Delta, their activities are costing the nation 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The government is losing this amount of the natural resource at a time that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has expressed the need to search for new oil deposits in order to boost depleting reserves.

The former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, told The Guardian that government was aware of the situation and would ensure that those who were involved in the theft were brought to book.

He stated:  “Oil theft in the Niger Delta is a very serious matter.  The government has been combating them with military personnel.  The amount of oil they steal is about 300,000 bpd. This is not good at all for the economy.  These people are supported by big cartels of international agencies. They sell this oil cheaply. The government is doing all it can to put a stop to this huge lose. The government is interested in elimination them.”

In 2009, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited disclosed that Nigeria lost about $1.5 billion yearly to crude oil theft.

“Criminal gangs continue to steal oil from our pipelines at an estimated rate of 100,000 barrels a day. Theft and illegal refining cause extensive environmental damage. Sabotage and theft together accounted for more than 80 per cent of the spill volume from SPDC facilities in 2010”, Chairman/Managing Director of SPDC, Mutiu Sunmonu said.

WikiLeaks said recently that a United States diplomatic cable quoting a Nigerian official showed that a member of a government panel on troubles in the nation’s Niger Delta implicated some top political leaders as being the biggest forces behind the theft.

It claimed that the theft also fueled arms sales to the restive region while causing environmental damage and cutting production in a nation crucial to U.S. oil supplies.

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Plaintiffs in Bowoto v. Chevron Ask Supreme Court to Hear Case, EarthRights International, Mon, 2011-06-20

On behalf of nineteen Nigerian plaintiffs in Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., ERI filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court today asking the court to hear the case.  Specifically, the petition requests that the Supreme Court overturn the decision in the case by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that corporations such as Chevron cannot be sued for torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).

The litigation against Chevron arises out of an incident in 1998 in which Nigerian villagers occupied a Chevron offshore oil platform in the Niger Delta in order to protest environmental devastation and economic disruption caused by oil production.  After several days of peaceful protest, Chevron called in brutal Nigerian military and police forces to attack the protestors.  The security forces shot several protestors and killed two, including Arolika Irowarinun, whose family is among the plaintiffs in the case.

In December 2008, a San Francisco jury ruled against the Nigerian plaintiffs.  But the jury never heard the claim that Arolika Irowarinun was subjected to extrajudicial killing, because the court had ruled that Chevron could not be sued under the TVPA.  The only claim for Arolika’s death was a wrongful death claim which, due to idiosyncracies of Nigerian law, required a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Ninth Circuit rejected the plaintiffs’ appeal in September 2010, agreeing with the trial court that corporations could not be sued for torture or exttrajudicial killing under the TVPA; the court further rejected plaintiffs’ petition for rehearing in February 2011.  This ruling is in conflict with cases decided by another federal court of appeals, the Eleventh Circuit, which has repeatedly ruled that corporations can be sued under the TVPA.

We do not expect a decision from the Supreme Court on whether it will hear the case until September or October.

Documents:
Petition for Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court

Can the new government of Goodluck Jonathan clean up corruption and set enterprise free in Africa’s most populous country?

Photo credit: AFP

This article is from The Economist online edition, May 26th 2011 | Abuja, Kano and Onitsha

NIGERIANS have taken to watching an old film—one of their own—since the presidential election last month. It shows intrigue and thievery at the court of an ancient king in the Niger Delta. Decked out in glittering costumes on an improvised sound stage, the wicked court at last collapses under the weight of its own sins.

When it was released in 1999, “Saworoide” was seen as a commentary on the regime of Sani Abacha, who ruled (or, as some prefer, “dismembered”) Nigeria between 1993 and 1998. Once again, Nigerians are hoping to see the back of their ruling elite. Goodluck Jonathan, the president, wafts along on a wave of personal goodwill and is mostly seen as benign. It is the men and women around him whom voters blame for Nigeria’s woes.

With Mr Jonathan’s inauguration on May 29th, and the formation of a new government, many expect a turnaround. Two-thirds of Nigerians think the election will change their lives, according to a poll conducted by the International Republican Institute, an American outfit that promotes democracy. “We dream,” says a girl shining shoes. “What else can we do?”

The buoyant mood extends to the boardrooms and watering holes of Lagos, the business capital. There, sleekly suited bankers are licking their fingers. “We are printing extra business cards,” says one. Foreign investors, too, see a chance of good times ahead on the back of reforms promised by Mr Jonathan. They speak of billions held in offshore accounts, ready to be injected into the economy if the political stars align. A senior Western diplomat calls this “a real opportunity for Nigeria to kick itself into a new sphere”.

Though widely shared, that sentiment has not silenced the general dissatisfaction. If anything, it has grown louder as reform plans take shape and the rascal ways of the political class are unmistakably identified as the main reason for the lack of prosperity. The economy may be growing by 7% a year, but this feeds mostly the greedy mouths closest to government troughs. The speaker of the lower house of parliament was investigated this month for “misappropriating” $140m. Meanwhile, about 70% of Nigerians live on less than $2 a day.

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Outrage over JTF raid on Ijaw community, Sun News, by Emmanuel Ogoigbe, Warri, May 15, 2011
•Call soldiers to order, Ayakoromo tells Jonathan
•Group demands COAS resignation, JTF disbandment

Dec 2010 damage from JTF attack in Ayakoromo village

Devastated Ayakoromo community in Delta State has asked the Federal Government to call the military Joint Task Force (JTF) to order even as no fewer than seven persons were feared dead in a renewed hostility between John Togo-led militants and the security outfit.

Sunday Sun investigation revealed that the community, which is recuperating from the devastation caused a few months ago as the JTF raid, has again been affected by the fresh conflict. Consequently, the town has been deserted.
An elderly man, Pa Timi, who spoke to Sunday Sun at the refugee camp at Ogbe-Ijoh, expressed shock over the renewed attack and pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan to call the soldiers to order so that permanent peace could return to the area.

According to him, people who fled the area during the skirmish sometime last year, had started returning home until Thursday’s shoot-out between John Togo’s men and the JTF. Efforts to speak to the community’s national chairman, Chief Anthony Bamuza, failed but a legal adviser and member of the Ayakoromo Relocation Council, Mr Tare Suowari, expressed disgust over the renewed attack and pleaded with the military authorities to call their men to order.

While calling for restraint on the side of the military, Suowari maintained that John Togo does not reside in Ayakoromo and pleaded that soldiers should stop killing innocent persons and destroying of property.
He disclosed that the indigenes were fleeing the community in hundreds while some were at the refugee camp at Ogbe-Ijoh and other areas.

While commending the Federal Government for fulfilling its promises to rebuild the destroyed community, Suowari said: “Until this recent crisis, most of the rehabilitated buildings were at advance stages because over 50 houses were affected. But we are surprised at the recent attack, which has affected some of the buildings.”
The Ijaw Peoples Assembly, in a strong-worded statement issued yesterday by its president, Elder Asu Beks, called for the resignation of the Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Azubuike Ihejirika, and disbandment of the JTF.
According to the group, the outfit had outlived its usefulness following the amnesty deal and the disarming of former militants in the Niger Delta.

It noted that an aspect of the amnesty deal was an agreement that the Federal Government would disband the JTF.
“This is yet to be acted upon. Sadly, this same JTF displayed its notorious character with another coordinated invasion of Ayakoromo community on Thursday, May 12, 2011 under the guise of searching for the renegade John Togo. As in previous raids, the JTF displayed unprovoked recklessness and used maximum force on the peaceful and defenceless people of the community, displacing all of them from their homes.

“We are alarmed that this JTF, which is not accountable to nor takes command from the President, is being routinely deployed to inflict so much pain on peaceful communities in the Niger Delta. “We therefore demand the immediate disbanding of the JTF in line with the terms and spirit of the amnesty programme and the agreement reached with former Niger Delta militants; prosecution of the commanders of the JTF, who authorised and supervised the invasion of Ayakoromor and sacking of the inhabitants; and the resignation of the Chief of Army Staff for wilfully superintending the retention of the illegal unit known as JTF,” Beks stated.

Spokesperson of the Ijaw Republican Assembly (IRA), Ms Annkio Briggs, in a telephone interview, said the JTF had become an “army of occupation” in the Niger Delta that takes delight in carrying unprovoked attack on Ijaw communities. “This must stop except they want to kill all of us. It is even more annoying as information available to us show that even the President who is from the Niger Delta is not aware of such a raid as well as the National Security Adviser. So who order the attacked Ayakoromo again?” she fumed.

Lethal illegal refineries dot Nigeria’s oil delta, by Samuel Tife, Reuters
Africa, Sun Mar 6, 2011 8:21am GMT

ODIGBO, Nigeria (Reuters) – A Nigerian soldier opens fire into drums of gasoline stacked among the mangroves, then runs back to a safe distance.

His colleagues set light to rags on the end of a stick and fling them into the liquid seeping from the bullet holes. The heat forces them to look away as orange flames roar into the air, billowing thick, black smoke.

Smoke rises from an illegal crude oil refinery site in an Ogoni community in Nigeria's Niger Delta July 7, 2010. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye

Destroying illegal oil refineries dotted among the creeks of the Niger Delta is almost as dangerous for these soldiers as working here was for the young men who turned stolen crude oil into home-made gasoline.

Crude oil thieves — known locally as “bunkerers” — have been a fact of life for years in Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, puncturing pipelines and costing Nigeria and foreign oil firms millions of dollars in lost revenues each year.

A government amnesty two years ago for gunmen in the Niger Delta, where
dirt-poor thatch-roofed villages sit among some of Africa’s biggest industry installations, brought some respite.

But rising world oil prices have pushed the cost of gasoline in Nigeria up by a third to 150 naira a litre over the past three months, increasing demand on the black market and making the illegal refineries as profitable as ever.

“The local communities raised the alarm because of the devastating effects on their waterways and farms, and complaints have also started coming from the oil majors,” said Timothy Antigha, military spokesman in the Niger Delta.

“We are winning the battle. The situation would have been worse if we were not around,” he said.

A hundred soldiers backed up by gunboats and two helicopters were involved in Saturday’s operation, which targeted three illegal refineries around Odigbo, a village near the border between Bayelsa and Rivers states.

By the time the soldiers arrived, abandoned barrels of gasoline, blackened earth pits and scorched foliage were all that remained — these are close-knit communities and the bunkerers knew the military were coming.

The army seized equipment including home-made pumps and welding machines, but no arrests were made.

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