UPDATE: Nigeria's Bonny Militant Says Ready To Disarm
July 11 2009 - 3:26PM
Dow Jones News
A leader in the main militant group on Nigeria's Bonny Island
said Friday it was ready to disarm, potentially leading to improved
security conditions for a planned U.S. gas export scheme.
In a phone interview with Dow Jones late Friday, Papi, a leader
in the Okoloma Ikpangi group said: "We are accepting the amnesty"
offered by the government last month to Niger Delta militants. "We
are ready" to disarm, he said.
However, he added the group, the name of which means "the Bonny
Kingdom Faction" in the local language, is "trying to reach the
amnesty committee." "We don't know the conditions" to disarm such
as where to lay down the weapons, he said. "There should be payment
for our arms," Papi said, adding "we need rehabilitation for our
youth."
Papi - a pseudonym - said the group, which has 180 fighters
based in a camp close to the Cawthorne Channel 1 area, was involved
in gun battles with the army last year.
Bonny Island houses a 400,000 barrels-a-day oil export terminal
and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. plant, Africa's largest
liquefied gas facility. Both are owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC
(RDSB.LN), Total SA (TOT), ENI SpA (E) and the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corp. Plans to adds a new facility for U.S. gas exports,
Train 7, have yet to get a final greenlight despite signed LNG
sales contracts with the likes of BG Group PLC (BG.LN) as security
among other issues still has to be considered.
Papi said that lack of water, schooling and health care - common
grievances in the oil-rich Niger Delta - have to be addressed. But
he emphasized as a priority the need to give access to LNG-related
contracts to a broader spectrum of locals. If those problems - in
particular local youth employment - are resolved, "Train 7...nobody
can stop them, there will no problem," the militant said.
"Companies should help the youth before Train 7 kicks off. That's
all we need," Papi added.
The militant's statements are a stark reminder, however, of the
depth of the problems that led to mounting insecurity in the
region, culminating with the shutdown of 1 million barrels a day of
oil output - equivalent to over 1% of the crude consumed daily
worldwide.
Localized conflicts in the Delta have becoming increasingly
militarized with many locals become more conversant in military
vernacular than in oil-field terminology. Papi said his group is
equipped with "RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launchers, GPMGs
(general purpose machine guns), AK-47s (assault rifles)." He said
his fighters had first used weapons "to protect our boundary" from
neighboring communities. Disputes over who controls specific land
in oil-bearing oil communities is common in the Delta. But he said
the militancy also stemmed from local political disagreements and a
social divide within Bonny Island where he said many locals do not
benefit from LNG projects' jobs.
"This is the original reason for coming in the creeks: The rich
get richer and the poor get poorer," he said.
"The big men in Bonny collect contracts from the whites," he
alleged.
"We can't seek job without paying black contractors, indigenous
contractors," he added.
Spokesmen for NLNG didn't return calls or e-mails. But Papi said
he and his men now regretted embracing armed tactics. "We wrote an
apology to the local government, to the community for using arms,"
he said.
- By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 77 601 777 36