MEND Attacks Resume

On Saturday, the oil pipeline of the Italian-owned oil company ENI was attacked by MEND fighters. The company says it has lost 4,000 barrels per day but this attack has not had a noticeable impact on global oil prices so far. A MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, publicly claimed credit for the attack on the oil pipeline in Bayelsa, as well as for a separate attack on the home of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe. He said, “The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta understands the negative impact our assault on the Nigerian oil industry will have on the ordinary citizen in a country which relies almost entirely on one source of revenue. Unfortunately, the extremely irresponsible, floundering government of Nigeria is more concerned with enriching themselves and family members than attending to the problems of the Niger Delta and the continuously depreciating standard of living of the ordinary Nigerian.” Gbomo warned that “traitorous indigenes of the Niger Delta” need to be careful.

The very same day a popular hotel near Warri in Delta State suffered a bombing after ex-militants staying there protested perceived poor treatment by the national Amnesty Committee’s consultant responsible for their rehabilitation training and living quarters.

Last week’s violence is important because it is the first flare of violence since the Niger Delta Amnesty Program, created under the late Preside Yar’Adua, was implemented. Managers of the amnesty program claim that over 26,000 ex-agitators have already been demobilized and that over 7000 are currently being trained in Nigeria and abroad while 12,000 are being processed in order to do so. The major educational reintegration camps within Nigeria are located in Cross River State in the East and in Lagos State in the west. There are a number of women who have accepted the amnesty program and are living with their children at the Cross River State camp. Additionally, ex-militants have reportedly been sent all over the world, including to Malaysia, Russia, India, South Africa, and the Philippines. Not surprisingly, it is a fairly common belief that people who were never part of the agitation have emerged to claim amnesty in order to enjoy its benefits.