More than 5,000 Ijaw Youth gather in the ancient Kaiama Town, Bayelsa state, proclaiming the “Kaiama Declaration” and start peaceful protests against oil corporations for the years of environmental abuse and neglect of the region. The major demand of the youth is ‘resource control and self-determination’.[1] The government and oil corporations respond with violence through the deployment of military troops into the region, targeting the Ijaw communities – Yenagoa, Mbiama, Bomadi, Port Harcourt etc. Many youths are killed by the military.[2]

 

In January 1999, Opia and Ikeyan villages of Delta State are razed in circumstances linking the American oil giant, Chevron. In the invasion carried out by Nigerian soldiers paid and ferried in Chevron helicopters, scores of people are killed and the communities are completely destroyed.

 

Nigeria returns to civil rule after years of military dictatorship. President Olusegun Obasanjo is sworn in as civilian President of Nigeria, ending decades of military dictatorship. Hopes are raised in the delta and other parts of Nigeria that the region’s problems will be resolved democratically and through dialogue.

 

Odi, an oil-bearing community in Bayelsa State is razed to the ground by Nigerian military troops and about 2,483 persons - mainly women, children and the elderly-- are massacred on the order of President Olusegun Obasanjo.[3] The reason given by the government for the invasion: some 9 police officers that had gone into the community to arrest a notorious gang in the state, but were allegedly killed by the gang. The President threatened to declare a state of emergency within 14 days. However, before the expiration of the 14 days, the President deployed soldiers into the community and razed it to the ground. Community members suspect this massacre was to serve as a lesson to other oil producing communities in the region protesting for a fair share of the resources taken from their land.[4]

 

The Niger Delta Development Commission is established by an act of parliament after President Olusegun Obasanjo refuses to sign the act into law. It is established as a development agency to facilitate and execute development projects in the nine oil-bearing states in the South-South region of Nigeria. It is to receive funding from the government and a levy from the oil multinationals operating in the region. Since its inception, the agency has been bogged down by political bickering and has been starved of funds by the federal government and oil companies in the region.

 

Itsekiri women protest the excruciating socio-economic condition in the delta region by peacefully and non-violently taking over a Chevron-Texaco airstrip at Escravos export terminal in Delta state and occupying the place for ten days with a promise to leave only on the condition that their demands for better conditions of life for citizens of the Niger Delta are met. The women were forcefully ejected from the platform, and some of them brutalized, by the military men invited by Chevron-Texaco to intervene.[5]

 

Ijaw women of Gbaramatu and Egbema clans in Delta state protest the socio-economic and political condition of the people by peacefully and non-violently occupying the Chevron Abiteye flow station. They plan to remain there until their demands for employment, microcredit schemes and provision of infrastructure in the two clans are fulfilled. Chevron invites the Nigerian security to get the women to disperse; some of the women are brutalized by the military invited by Chevron.[6]

 

Women from several ethnic groups (Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri) in Delta state put ethnic rivalry aside and join together to claim better living conditions, proper compensation for the communities living on lands that host oil exploitation and a sustainable means of living for their families. The unarmed women peacefully occupy the gates of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Chevron Nigeria Limited in Warri, Delta State on August 8, 2002. According to some of their leaders, the women protesters are campaigning for community resources and services they feel the oil companies should provide in return for taking their land’s mineral resources and not giving jobs to the men of the community. In response, Chevron and Shell invites the military who brutalizes most of the women.[7]

 

The military deploys about 10 gun boats and other military hardware into Okerenkoko community. The invasion by the military, which is resisted by villagers, claims about 20 lives and three soldiers. The conflict emerges out of a disagreement between the military and some youths in the territory: the youth claim the military was involved in illegal oil dealing; the military claim they are trying to arrest locals involved in oil theft.[8]

 

Elections are conducted for state governorship, federal parliament and presidential positions in Nigeria. The elections are marred with irregularities and regarded as not free and fair by both local and international observers. The elections in the Niger Delta are marred by violence orchestrated by state agencies and militia armed by political leaders and office-seekers in the region. Youth groups are armed by the ruling party (PDP) in the region to intimidate opponents.[9]

 

The Joint Task Force “Operation Restore Hope” is officially established in the Niger Delta. It is made up of men from the army, navy, air force, police, mobile-police and the State Security service (SSS). Its mandate, among others, is to secure oil installations, curb oil-bearing community agitation and neutralize any threat to the oil industry in the region.

 

Alhaji Dokubo-Asari (then IYC President and Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force) condemns his former friend Dr.Peter Odili, the Governor of Rivers State, for the outcome of the 2003 elections, which Dokubo-Asari claims are fraudulent and unacceptable. This boils over into a conflict between Dokubo-Asari’s Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force and Ateke Tom’s (a militant leader in the Okirika axis of the state) Niger Delta Vigilante on the one hand and Dokubo-Asari and Nigerian security agencies on the other. The duo of Dokubo-Asari and Ateke Tom are subsequently declared wanted by the police.[10]

 

The President directs the Joint Task Force to wipe out Dokubo-Asari’s NDPVF. In response to the President’s declaration, in late September 2004, Dokubo-Asari declares an “all out war” against the Nigerian State and multinational corporations in the creeks of the Niger Delta. He threatens to blow up pipelines, flow-stations, and rigs criss-crossing the region and disrupt the flow of oil.[11]

 

The President, Olusegun Obasanjo invites Dokubo-Asari and Ateke Tom to a peace meeting at the seat of federal power in Abuja. The duo are flown to Abuja and hold discussions with the President with a view to ending the crisis. The President thereafter gives amnesty to the militant leaders and their lieutenants and asks that they submit weapons at their disposal for a buyback deal. The leaders return to Port Harcourt, return their arms and receive cash as agreed.

 

Odioma community in Bayelsa state is invaded and razed down on Saturday February 19 by members of federal security outfit in the Niger Delta “Joint Task Force” (Operation Restore Hope). The invasion is due to a dispute between Odioma community and Nembe Bassambiri community over ownership of Obioku an oil location. The dispute claimed the lives of twelve persons including four Nembe Local Government Area (LGA) councilors, who were on their way to Nembe towards the resolution of the crisis. The murder is alleged to have been committed by members of a notorious cult group called “Teme” (Shadow) that are resident in Odioma. Hence, the Governor orders men of the Joint Task Force into the community. The Joint Task Force invades the community, kills more than seventeen persons, render scores missing/displaced and property worth millions of dollars damaged.[12]

The President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurates a 169-man National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) to deliberate on pressing national issues. Topics up for debate at the conference include changing electoral rules, increasing women's representation in government, redefining citizenship within states, and better redistributing oil wealth. The conference is not concluded due to a walk out by delegates from the south-south (Niger Delta states) after other participants refuse to accept the increase in revenue derived from the oil industry from its current 13% to 25% and later to 50% in the next ten years. The third term ambitions of President Olusegun Obasanjo leads to the untimely demise of the conference.[13]

Events took a new dimension in the Niger Delta; D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha, the Governor of Bayelsa State, (the only Ijaw State in Nigeria) is arrested in London by British Police over allegations of money laundering. Back home, Dokubo-Asari (leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force) is arrested by the government in Port Harcourt, taken to Abuja (the deferral capital) and charged for treasonable felony. Also at the same time, Chief Ebitimi Banigo, a former Minister of Science and Technology in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first tenure is arrested and his bank (Allstates Trust Bank Ltd Plc) is crippled and thousands of Ijaw youths under his employment rendered jobless. The federal government also deployed more federal troops to Ijaw territories and communities of the Niger Delta to quell possible uprising against these actions.[14]

 

MEND rebels attack an SPDC oil field located about 20 kilometers offshore, take four expatriate oil workers hostage and demand the immediate and unconditional release of Dokubo-Asari and Governor D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha. The hostages are released to Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities at the end of January.[15]

 

A Special Niger Delta Consultative Forum is held against the background of the hostage saga and to proffer solutions to the Niger Delta problems in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

 

Military helicopter gunships and jet fighters are deployed over Okerenkoko and surrounding communities emitting explosives and shooting into communities indiscriminately. The aircraft used for the attacks are said to have been deployed from Osubi airstrip in Warri, a civilian airstrip owned by Shell. The military attack, which according to the federal government is directed towards illegal dealers or smugglers, left the communities of Seigbene, Perezuuoweikorigbene, Ukpogbene and Seitorugbene, all of Gbaramatu Kingdom shattered and allegedly about 20 civilians from the communities, mainly fisher folks killed.[16]

 

MEND fighters respond to the aerial attacks by mobilizing and storming Shell’s Forcados Loading terminal. The MEND militants carry out a series of attacks around the Forcados terminal, setting fire to available tankers, blowing up pipelines and the loading platform. The MEND fighters also take nine hostages from Wilbros (a Shell contractor) and use them as human shields by dispersing the hostages into the Ijaw communities of Gbaramatu under government aerial attacks. This singular action of MEND leads to the termination of government aerial attacks on Gbaramatu Kingdom by the federal troops. The hostages are later released in batches unhurt with the last three set free on the March 27, 2006, more than three months after they are captured following the air raid. The MEND attacks lead to a shut-in of about 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the western delta of Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo calls for dialogue in the resolution of the Niger delta crisis.[17]

 

MEND detonates two explosives – one at the Bori Camp Military Barracks, Port Harcourt, and the other at a petrol tanker garage in Warri. The attacks are described as not ‘strategic but symbolic’ by MEND -- to show that the military that is used by the oil companies to protect oil facilities and personnel, is incapable of protecting their own personnel and territory. 

The President, Olusegun Obasanjo, in response, declares a total crackdown on the insurgents by the federal military in the region. This new directive contradicts the President’s earlier stand that the Niger Delta crisis would be addressed through dialogue with the insurgents rather than war. The declaration of war against the insurgents by the President leads to constant altercations between the federal military joint task force and insurgents in the region leading to the death of many civilians and military men.[18]

 

The President, Olusegun Obasanjo, calls for dialogue and holds a meeting with peoples of the Niger Delta region in Abuja. The meeting is boycotted by the Ijaw ethnic nationality due to their desire to have a separate meeting with the president. During the meeting with peoples of the region, the President acknowledges the deplorable situation of the Niger Delta region and announces the formation of the Council of Social Economic and Development of the Coastal States (COSEEDECS). This group (COSEEDECS) is to oversee the development of the coastal oil-producing states of the Niger Delta region. Shortly after its formation, the group dissolves due to the non-participation of the Ijaws and lack of funding from the government. The President also announces that the East-West road (the only road linking the Niger Delta region to other parts of Nigeria) be made a two-lane road.

 

In early August 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo again directs the commanders and other ranks of the federal military joint task force to quell youth agitations against the oil multinationals and to see that oil companies are back to business. Immediately, after the Presidential declaration, the Martyrs Brigade, the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Coalition of Militant Action and MEND also announce the formation of a coalition of militants in the region called Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC).

On the 20th of August 2006, a few days after the Presidential order of crackdown of militants in the region, men of the Joint Task Force massacre about 15 Ijaw youths. The youth group was returning from Letugbene in Bayelsa State after the rescue of an SPDC staff taken into custody by the inhabitants of Letugbene community for the company’s refusal to honor an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the company. The SPDC staff (Nelson Ujeya) is also murdered during the unprovoked attack. The intervention of the youth group is necessitated due to calls and appeals from government functionaries (federal and state), SPDC, the Joint Task Force and even the Chief of Army Staff.[19]

 

 On September 2^nd 2006, the bodies of the slain youths kept at the Warri Central hospital, are released to their families for proper burial rites, and about 5,000 youths, women and sympathizers across the Niger delta gather to pay their last respect to the slain youths.

 

Sixty-five Nobel Laureates including the Commission of Nobel Laureates on Peace, Equity and Development in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, an endeavor of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity (EWF), releases its findings on the Niger Delta situation on December 1, 2006. The body of Nobel Laureates visits the Niger Delta in August 2006. The Report of the Nobel Laureates on the Niger Delta, which is based on field interviews, secondary materials and on-the spot assessment addresses areas such as: environment, poverty, violence, governance, corruption, elections, oil multinationals, development and security in the Niger Delta region.[20]

 

While commissioning his campaign headquarters in Abuja, Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar  on January 30^, 2007, reveals to the public that the ‘administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a few weeks ago, just approved $2 billion to buy weapons to fight the militants in the Niger Delta’. The militants’ responds saying “we are prepared for war”, and did not take this revelation by the Vice President in the administration well.[21] The Presidency denies the allegation by Atiku Abubakar (Vice President).

 

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) releases the Marshall Plan for the Development of the Niger Delta region. It is a 15-year road map on the development of the Niger Delta region. The Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan shows the best way for all to achieve the development goals for the Niger Delta-- for the federal government to make its contribution, states to make their contributions, the local governments, and even donor agencies.

 

General elections are conducted in Nigeria at the federal and state levels. The April 2007 elections see Musa Yar ‘Adua and Goodluck Jonathan emerge as President and Vice President. The elections are widely believed to have involved monumental electoral fraud and ballot rigging. The rigging, electoral fraud and intimidation are more pronounced in the Niger Delta states. However, the fraudulent elections produce for the first time an Ijaw from Bayelsa State as Vice President (Goodluck Jonathan). Both national and international observers condemn the conduct of the elections as not meeting ‘democratic norms’.

 

Militants attack the country home of Vice President-Elect, Goodluck Jonathan (then Governor of Bayelsa state), at Otuoke community in Bayelsa state. During the early morning attack, two police officers are killed and a nearby police station destroyed by the militants who bomb the house. The incident takes place as military personnel gather in Yenagoa for a three-day capacity building workshop organized by the Ministry of Defense.

 

Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan are sworn-in as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, respectively, and take over from President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The new President Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua promises to address the Niger Delta problem as part of his seven-point agenda in his maiden address to the nation.

 

Due to the constant attack on oil facilities by MEND and other militia groups in the delta leading to shut-ins and loss in crude supply, the federal government decides to release Dokubo-Asari through a bail granted by a high court in the federal capital territory of Abuja on June 14, 2007. His arrest and detention since September 20 2005 led to the introduction of kidnappings, hostage-taking and facility destruction in the region. It is believed in most quarters that his release will resolve all such vices in the region through his intervention and appeal.

 

The vice president travels to the creeks of the Niger Delta on June 28, 2007, to have direct talks with militant leaders towards resolving the crisis situation in the region. He is said to have visited Camp 5 and other camps to hold talks with the aggrieved youths of the Niger Delta on a peaceful resolution of the crisis rocking the region. The Vice President’s visit produces the Ijaw Youth Leadership Forum (IYLF), a body put together by the militants to dialogue with the government towards an amicable resolution of the crisis.

 

The Vice President, after a wide range of consultation with various stakeholders within and outside the Niger Delta, inaugurates the Presidential Committee on Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Niger Delta on July 2, 2007, with David Brigidi and Kingsley Kuku as Chairman and Secretary respectively. The Committee is to go to various camps and communities to appeal to aggrieved youths to lay down their arms towards a peaceful and amicable resolution of the crisis.

 

A “committee for consultation on the roadmap to peace implementation,” initiated by the Ijaw Youth Leadership Forum (IYLF), and an outgrowth of the Vice President’s visit to the creeks of the Niger Delta, is inaugurated on August 24, 2007 at the Presidential Villa of Abuja with the Secretary to the Federal Government as Chairman (representing the federal government). The committee submits the following preconditions to the secretary to the federal government as conditions for proper negotiations with the Federal Government:[22]

·   The Release of Chief D.S.P Alamieyeseigha

·   Withdrawal of military troops from Ijaw towns and villages and replaced with police where and when necessary

·   Amnesty to Ijaw Freedom Fighters in detention, prisons and those under surveillance

·   Presidential visit to designated Niger Delta (Ijaw Communities) in the region and the declaration of developmental emergency

·   Rehabilitation of destroyed Ijaw communities by federal troops (e.g Odi and Odioma etc.)

The various peace initiatives by the vice president produce a ceasefire and truce in the region, though not without a pocket of dissent.

 

Henry Okah, a suspected leader of the MEND movement is arrested in Angola allegedly for gun-running. The Angolan government does not file charges against him for three months and finally repatriates him to Nigeria where he is charged with gun-running and treasonable felony.

 

The Federal military in the region (Joint Task Force) attacks Gbaraun community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State. The community attack is condemned because it is unprovoked and the community is in no way linked to militancy in the state or region. Several properties worth millions are destroyed during the attack and scores are wounded. This attack occurs while discussion is ongoing between the federal government and representatives of the militant groups in the region.

 

A military report by the commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, former Brig. Gen. L.P. Ngubane, is issued entitled “Brief for Chief of Defence Staff on Strategies to Stem out Militant Activities within the Joint Task Force Operation Restore Hope Area of Responsibility”. The report is intercepted by the militants and released to the public for analysis and scrutiny. In the document socio-cultural organizations such as MOSOP, INC, and youth groups such as IYC and FNDIC are tagged as militant groups that must be crushed. The document highlights militant leaders in the region and their capabilities, their weaponry and manpower.   Marked for total annihilation are Ijaw communities such as Oporoza, Kurutie, Okerenkoko and other villages in Gbaramatu, Delta State. The report further identifies Ijaw communities in Bayelsa and Rivers States that must be visited with carnage. The report is very clear that maximum military action is required by the federal government to stamp out militancy using land, air and sea in their attacks. The military argues that the resolution of the crisis lies in maximum military expenditure in the region even though it will result in innocent lives lost.[23]

 

The Military Joint Task Force attacks Ateke Tom (a youth leader participating in the ongoing peace process) from Okirika, Rivers State, Nigeria. Ateke Tom had bought into the peace process and was reaching out to others, uniting rival groups, signing peace deals and sponsoring unity-sporting events in the Okirika axis. The attacks on Ateke Tom on December 10, 2007, through aerial bombardment and armored tanks is condemned by the Ijaw Youth Leadership Forum as a military design deliberately orchestrated to curtail the peace process.

 

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua presents the 2008 budget to the National Assembly. In the budget to the National Assembly the government allocates the sum of 69 billion naira ($500 million USD) to the NDDC for the development of the Niger Delta region, while the sum of 444.6 billion naira (4 billion USD) is allocated to security in the Niger Delta. This action of the government is condemned by militia groups in the region as a tactical declaration of war in the region by the federal government of Nigeria. Elders, opinion leaders, activists and youth groups in the region condemn the action. In the same token, the government announces that over $3 billion US dollars owed the NDDC by the federal government for the development of the Niger Delta region is “expired” and will no longer be paid to the development agency.

 

Talks between representatives of the militants and the federal government break down. The youth representatives claim the federal government is insincere in its dealing with the group. In a press release made available to journalists dated December 14^, 200, the Ijaw Youth Leadership Forum states clearly that it is pulling out due to the arrest of Henry Okah (the suspected leader of MEND) in Angola, his subsequent repatriation to Nigeria and secret trial, the military invasion of Gbaraun community, attacks on Ateke Tom and the callous allocation of $4 billion for security in the Niger Delta. In the communiqué signed by Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Convener), the group requests all peace committees in the region to suspend their action and ask the federal government to stop the unprovoked invasion of Ijaw communities by the military joint task force in the region. However, it takes the intervention of the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark and other notable Ijaw elders, who are contacted by the federal government before the youths agree to come back to the negotiating table in January 2008.

 

Amidst the New Year celebration in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on December 31^, 2007, a group of armed young men invade two police stations and some other locations in the city, killing 16 persons, including four policemen and one security officer attached to the Presidential Hotel. They drive to Borokiri where a gun battle ensues with police and they kill an inspector, a sergeant and a constable at the Borokiri station. The police also claim that six of the armed men die during the shoot out.

 

February 2008.

On February 16, Dr. Chris Ekiyor, the IYC President and 50 other Ijaw youths are arrested and beaten by men of the federal joint military task force while on their way to Olugbobiri in Bayelsa state. The incident leaves eight Ijaw youths seriously injured.

 

On May 12, 2008 men of the federal military joint task force invade Opuama community in Delta state in search of militants; during the invasion, four persons are killed, several persons are wounded, and property worth millions of dollars is destroyed.

 

The federal military joint task force again on June 3, 2008, invades the town of Twon Brass in Brass Local Government Area, Bayelsa state where one Ebi male is killed, hundreds are displaced and several others are wounded.

 

On June 6, 2008, men of the federal military joint task force in the Niger Delta strike at Epebu community in Bayelsa state. The military invasion leaves three people dead and the corpses are thrown into the river by the Joint Task Force. Also, during the attack, several persons are wounded and scores of houses are burnt by the rampaging military.

 

The federal military joint task force invades Sararogbo Zion an Ijaw community in Edo state on June 8, 2008. The community is destroyed and property worth millions of dollars is destroyed by the military task force. On this same day the task force invades two Ijaw communities - Egbema 1 and Egbema 2 in Edo state. The two communities are completely destroyed and thousands are rendered homeless and displaced.

 

The dialogue process between the federal government and representatives of the Ijaw Youth Leaders Forum is suspended. In a communiqué issued after the forum’s meeting in Oporoza, Warri South West Local Government, Delta State, the forum cites alleged non-commitment on the part of the federal government and acts of aggression against its kinsmen and communities by men of the Joint Military Task Force in the region as reasons for the action.

 

Agge, a coastal community along the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State is invaded on August 4, 2008, by men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) code-named ‘Operation Restore Hope’. The JTF justifies its action saying that the community harbors youths who attacked soldiers in Tuomo and Bomadi communities the previous day, August 3. As with Odi and Odioma – the two communities in Bayelsa state that were previously invaded respectively in 1999 and 2005 by soldiers in search of criminals – Agge community is destroyed. The attack and destruction leaves several persons homeless and displaced.

 

On September 9, 2008, the President announces the creation of a ministry for the Niger Delta region (Ministry of Niger Delta). The President says, "The Ministry will coordinate our efforts to tackle the challenges of infrastructural development, environment protection and youth empowerment in the region." Support for the new ministry comes from prominent Niger Deltans. However, MEND the main militant movement in the region, calls for caution saying, “MEND will know the government is sincere when it offers true federalism in all its ramifications, which includes resource control and the unconditional release of all detained activists in its custody is another." The Federal Government in its proposal to the National Assembly for the 2009 budget year allocates only fifty billion naira (about $400 million) to the new ministry of Niger Delta and gives the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) the sum of twenty seven billion naira (about $200 million).. The allocation to these two bodies is viewed by many Niger Deltans as inadequate.

 

The joint military task force invades suspected militant camps in Rivers state using air, land and sea in its attacks on militant hideouts. After the military attacks which lasted several days, the MEND militant group responds by declaring an ‘oil war’ code named “Hurricane Barbarossa” blowing up pipelines in the region for one week. The MEND fighters decide to observe a unilateral ceasefire after pleas from elders and leaders in the region.[24]

 

The JTF claims that it has killed about 15 militants in the Bonny Rivers of Rivers state. Spokesman of the government security outfit in the Niger Delta, Lieutenant Col Sagir Musa, says the militants in six speed boats have made an effort to attack gunboats but are repelled. Col. Sagir Musa claims that two militant speedboats are sunk with all the occupants on board. No JTF arms and ammunition or gunboat is lost, but a JTF personnel is wounded and in stable condition.[25]

 

The Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Restore Hope announces the arrest of 22 Filipinos aboard a vessel over illegal bunkering on November 15, 2008.[26] The military task force promises to make available details of the unnamed arrest of "big guns in illegal oil business" as soon as possible.[27]

 

There is attack and counter-attacks between the JTF and militants in the Niger Delta, especially in Bayelsa and Rivers states. There is attack and sabotage of oil pipelines in Kalabari, Okirika and Bonny in Rivers states and attacks between the JTF and militants at various times. There is also attack and sabotage of pipelines between the JTF and the militants in Nembe, Sothern Ijaw and Ekeremor in Bayelsa state.

In March 2009, Commander of the Military Joint Task force Brig. Gen. Wuyip Nanven Rimtip (an army officer) is replaced by an airforce officer Major Gen. Sarkin Bello as commander of the JTF. Brig. Gen. Wuyep Rimtip, is re-designated the Land Component Commander under the JTF, to be based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state. The military outfit (JTF) is restructured with its operational headquarters moved from Effurun, Delta state to Yenogoa, Bayelsa State. In the new arrangement, the three states of Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers will each have a sector to be commanded by a senior Colonel. Delta State which is sector one, will be commanded by Col. Ahmed Mohammed, Bayelsa is sector two, and will be commanded by Col. Victor Ezeogu while Rivers which is sector three, will have Col. Muftahu Yekini, as its commanding officer. 

 

The JTF attacks Camp 5, a MEND militants’ stronghold in Gbaramatu Kingdom. The remote and immediate cause(s) of the invasion by the Military Joint Task Force is unknown, but the JTF attribute the attacks on the militants’ base to the killing of some military officers guarding oil facilities by militants loyal to Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo). In the same vein, the militants’ insist that the military attacks on their base is unprovoked but a calculated attempt by the military to drag them into a pre-planned military battle for control of the oil industry in the region. For two days men of the Military Joint Task Force and the militants engaged in gun battles leading to the death of 18 soldiers (including a captain) and scores of militants. Reinforcement by the JTF into the creeks through the waterways with a view to taking over Camp 5 is resisted for two days. In the attack on the communities of Gbaramatu Kingdom, the death and missing cannot be ascertained because the region remains cordoned off by the JTF, but Oboko Bello, a community leader in the Kingdom put it tentatively at between 500 and 2,000.[28]

On the night ofMay 13, the militants storm the Escravos Rivers and take hostage a ship belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), bringing it to Camp 5 with its crew and contents (oil).

 

On May 15, 2009, when it becomes apparent that militants cannot be overpowered by the firepower of the JTF using infantry fighters, the military joint task force deploys 4 jet fighters, 24 gunboats and three battalions of the Nigerian army into the creeks- using air, land and the sea. Camp 5 is attacked by the military using jet fighters, bombs and aided by troops on ground and sea. The bomb attack is extended to Oporoza, the central headquarter of Gbaramatu kingdom where a cultural festival attended by indigenes and visitors is ongoing. In Oporoza, the community’s guest-house, the king’s palace and several buildings are attacked, with scores of people wounded and killed by the air raid.

 

The Joint Military Task Force continues its air, land and sea bombardment of suspected militant camp zones targeting mainly Camp 5 and Iroko Camps suspected to be the stronghold of the militants. The attack by the military joint task force is extended to fishing ports around Camp 5 and Iroko Camps in the territory.

On May 16, 2009, MEND militants blow up a pipeline belonging to the American oil giant Chevron in Delta state in response to the military carnage. The pipeline is one of the major pipes that carry crude oil to the Otunana flow station in the Jones creek area of Delta state.

 

The JTF descends on Kunukunuma and Kurutie Communities, all in Gbaramatu Kingdom, attacking from the air, land and sea. The communities are sacked and scores of persons-- mainly children, women and the elderly--are killed and others displaced, with some hiding in the mangrove forest.

 

Okerenkoko, a point of target in military circles since the 2003 crisis between the military and some militants, is invaded and completely destroyed. The rampaging military invaders do not spare the health center, primary school and other public institutions in the community. Also, the JTF massacres persons who are moved to the health center from Oporoza on the first day of air attack in the kingdom. The Governor of Delta state Emmanuel Uduaghan confirms the assertion that the JTF was merciless and indiscriminate in the attack on communities of Gbaramatu.

 

The JTF troops revisit Oporoza, Kunukunuma, Kurutie and other villages, ransacking and burning down buildings. The military continues the ‘Search and Condon-off’ operation moving from house to house for possible survivors of the air, land and sea attacks on the communities previously undertaken. The military attack is extended to Kiangbene (Abiteye) on May 22, 2009. The community, like others visited by the JTF, was razed to the ground.

 

The JTF moves into Benikurukuru community and razes it down completely killing innocent women, children and the elderly who are unable to escape the wrath of the military invaders into Gbaramatu Clan.

 

The military cordons off the waterways and creeks of Gbaramatu unleashes monumental violence on Gbaramatu communities such as Ubefan, Tungbo, Akangbene, Goba, Seigbene, Perezuoweikorigbene, Ukpognene, Seitorububor and others

 

The military joint task force moves into Benikurukuru community and razes it down completely killing innocent women, children and the elderly who are unable to escape the wrath of the military invaders into Gbaramatu Clan.

 

Jomo Gbomo,, the spokesman of the MEND militia in an e-mail to the press says, “MEND fighters destroyed major trunk lines to effectively put the under-listed flow stations that feed the Chevron tank farm located in Delta state of Nigeria out of operation.” The affected flow stations are:

- Chevron (at Alero creek)

- Otunana

- Abiteye

- Makaraba

- Dibi

 

Ken Niweigha, the alleged mastermind of the killings of some police officers in Odi, which had led to the invasion, and destruction of Odi town in 1999 is arrested in Odi, and said to have died in the hands of the police in Yenagoa in controversial circumstances. While the police claim that the arrested suspect died during a shoot-out, MEND in an online message, claims that “he was summarily executed at the Bayelsa police headquarters on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, without a chance to defend himself in the court of law.”

 

MEND rejects an amnesty offer by the federal government. The group in an online message claim it wants the federal government to address root causes of the crisis “such as fiscal federalism” with “the involvement of international mediators.”[29]  

 

 MEND militants ask all oil firms in the Niger Delta to quit the region. In an online message by Jomo Gbomo, MEND’s spokesman the group says, “This is a final warning from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to local and foreign workers in the oil services and exploration companies to vacate the region within the next 72 hours due to an imminent attack.”[30]

 

MEND declares ‘Hurricane Piper Alpha’ and destroys part of the Otunana flow station in Delta state. In an online message to the media and general public Jomo Gbomo, MEND’s spokesman says[31] “As forewarned, a major "Cordon and Search" operation by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) commenced today, Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at about 2200 Hrs with devastating effects on the heavily fortified Chevron Otunana flow station in Delta state which is currently engulfed in fire after being overwhelmed by our fighters. Code-named "Hurricane Piper Alpha", the objective is to smoke out war criminals of the Northern Nigerian armed forces who have taken refuge in oil installations and give them instant jungle justice. These state sponsored terrorists are responsible for the killings, rapes, indiscriminate bombings and wanton destruction of property belonging to innocent civilians in impoverished oil bearing communities whose resources continues to sustain the entire Nigerian economy to their own detriment.”

 

The joint military task force kills seven villagers in Gbaramatu clan who are being ferried to safety. The seven, including four children, one woman, an elderly man, and the boat driver, were shot without warning as they approached the JTF checkpoint mounted in the inland waterway at Kiangbene (Abiteye) community in Delta state. They were on their way to the Warri refugee camps when they were killed.

 

 The MEND militants release a British hostage who has been staying with them for about nine months. In an online message Jomo Gbomo, Spokesman for the group says, “At about 1800 Hrs, today, June 12, 2009, when Matthew Maguire was being handed over in Rivers state, a major gas pipeline manifold and another major crude oil pipeline belonging to Chevron JV recently repaired at a sum of over $56 million were both blown up after another "system failure" caused by a passing Hurricane Piper Alpha. The pipelines are located just 200 meters from the abandoned Camp 5 in Delta state where the army is supposedly in control. The pipelines were due for re-commissioning so as it stands we are back to square one.”

 

MEND militants claim attacks on Makaraba oil facilities in Delta state. The Makaraba oil well 3 & 5 and its trunk line and gas lifts are blown up at about 0005 Hrs.

 

MEND militants’ destroys Abiteye (Kiangbene) flow station. The group promises to extend its destruction on oil facilities beyond the shores of Delta state: “After destroying the entire oil infrastructure in Delta state, the hurricane will move into the neighboring states of Bayelsa and Rivers before passing through the remaining states of Ondo, Edo, and Akwa Ibom then finally head off-shore.”[32] On the same day the MEND militants release a video tape of a callous extra judicial killing of two brothers recently in the Niger Delta by men of the joint military task force in the region.[33]

 

MEND militants claim to have destroyed a Shell oil facility in the Niger Delta. Jomo Gbomo, the group’s spokesman in an online message says, “At about 2030 Hrs today, Wednesday, June 17, 2009, fighters from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in furtherance of Hurricane Piper Alpha (our campaign to cripple the entire oil and gas export of the Federal Republic of Nigeria), destroyed with high explosives a major crude oil trunk line in Bayelsa state belonging to Shell. This delivery line which supplies the Forcados export terminal takes feed from the Tunu, Opukusu and Ugbotubu flow stations. The point of attack is the Agge/Odimodi axis.”

 

MEND fighters claim to have destroyed an Agip oil company facility in Brass LGA, Bayelsa State. Jomo Gbomo, group’s spokesman says; “A major pipeline which delivers crude oil to the Brass export terminal was blown up at the Nembe creek in Bayelsa state this morning Friday, June 19, 2009 at about 0300Hrs by heavily armed fighters from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The pipeline belongs to Agip.”

 

 MEND fighters claim to have destroyed Shell oil facilities in Rivers State. The group also claims that the military task force operation against Gbaramatu communities is undertaken through Chevron’s airstrip in Escravos, Delta state. MEND reports: “At about 0230 Hrs, the hurricane pounded the Shell major pipeline located at Adamakiri before moving on to another major Shell pipeline in Kula at 0300 Hrs. Both pipelines are located in Rivers state of Nigeria. We have been reliably informed that the Chevron Air Strip in Escravos was used by the military as a staging area for the jet fighters and helicopter gunships used in the attacks and bombing of civilian communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta state. By allowing its facilities to be used in committing atrocities against the host communities where it drills oil and gas from, Chevron has repeated the same mistake by Shell against the Ogoni communities and will pay a price in double measure.”[34] The group the same day claims responsibility for the attack on Shell’s offshore AFREMO oil fields at about 0400 hours, blowing up oil facilities in the process.

 

 The President Commander- Chief Umaru Musa Yar’Adua announces the granting of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta who lay down their arms and get reintegrated into society. The amnesty is to end on October 4, 2009. The MEND militants reject the amnesty offer saying it does not address the fundamentals of the crisis in the region. However, a few hours after the President’s declaration of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta region, the JTF attacks Agbeti in Delta state at about 2100Hrs. Similarly, MEND militants claims to have attacked the oil industry by blowing up the second remaining well head (jacket B) of the Shell Afremo off-shore oil fields in Delta state.

 

MEND militants destroy Shell’s oil facility in Delta state amidst tight security saying; “Hurricane Piper Alpha has struck at the Shell Forcados off-shore platform in Delta state today, Monday, June 29, 2009 at about 0330 Hrs.  Cluster 11 and 30 are currently on fire after a massive explosion. A military gunboat patrol, on noticing the fire, stumbled upon heavily armed fighters and the confrontation resulted in the sinking of the gunboat with all the occupants numbering between 20-23 soldiers.”

 

MEND upgraded its fighting code name “Hurricane Piper Alpha” to “Hurricane Moses” and attacks Shell Well Head 20, located at Cawthorn Channel 1. The facility connects to the Bonny loading terminal in Rivers state. On the same day the MEND militants attack the strategic Okan manifold which controls about 80 percent of Chevron Nigeria Limited offshore crude oil to its BOP Crude Loading Platform, which is blown up at about 2045 Hrs by Hurricane Moses in Delta state.

 

MEND militants take hostage six crew members from the chemical tanker, Sichem Peace, who are seized about 20 nautical miles from Escravos. Jomo Gbomo, MEND’s spokesman says, “Their arrest is meant to serve as a warning to others that there are root issues that have to be resolved with the Nigerian government before normalcy can resume such as the return of displaced civilians to their ancestral home, compensation for damages, return of the ill trained JTF to their barracks and last but not the least, constitutional amendment to address fiscal federalism.” The names and nationality of the hostages as given by MEND are:

·   Captain Yuriy Shastim, Russia

·   Chief Engineer Vasvi Bondarkov, Russia

·   2nd Engineer Viktor Koshevoy, Russia

·   Cadet Banjit Singh Dhindsa, India

·   Arivando Galima, Philippines

·   Tavares Rouirgo, Philippines

 

MEND militants claim to have destroyed Shell and Agip oil trunk lines in Bayelsa state. The group says, “The Agip pipeline which connects the Agip Brass terminal was sabotaged at Nembe creek while the Shell Nembe creek line was done at Asawo village, all in Bayelsa state.” The JTF also claims to have secured the chemical tanker Sichem Peace and also claims that two militants involved in the blowing up of oil facilities have been arrested and been interrogated.

 

The President appoints the immediate past Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Timi Alaibe as Honorary Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs. The appointment, according to the MEND militants, is a welcome development because it creates a communication channel between the President and the militants. The group also supports Henry Okah’s (the suspected MEND leader in government custody and been tried for treason) decision to accept amnesty considering his failing health in government custody.

 

MEND militants claim to have revisited attacks on a recently repaired Chevron pipeline linking Alero creek through Abiteye to the Chevron export terminal in Delta state and destroyed it again. The group, through their spokesman Jomo Gbomo, says, “We have been monitoring the repair works which involved security of over 200 soldiers and waited patiently until the repair was completed. This will be our mode of operation on any pipeline or facility that is repaired.”

 

MEND fighters claim responsibility for attacks on the Atlas Cove oil facility located in Lagos State, western Nigeria. The attack, which is the first major on an oil installation outside the Niger Delta region left five naval officers (including a captain) and four civilians dead and the facility severely damaged.

 

 

The secret trial of one of the presumed leaders of MEND Henry Okah ends with the federal government formally withdrawing the treason charge against him leading to his discharge by the Federal High Court. Henry Okah, after 23 months in captivity, tells journalists that his immediate priority is to take care of his ailing health but insists he is neither a militant nor the leader of militants.[35]

 

MEND militants declare a 60-day ceasefire in the Niger Delta region. The ceasefire according to the group is to allow for negotiation with the government on issues of the Niger Delta. In an online message to the media and general public the group says, “Effective, 0000 Hrs, Wednesday, July 15, 2009, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) will be observing a temporary ceasefire for a 60 day period. Several factors necessitated our decision; chiefly the release of Mr. Henry Okah from government custody. During this period, the Aaron team of wise men and women will be put together after consultations with relevant stakeholders. They will speak on our behalf and convey our demands to government.”[36]

 

MEND militants free the six hostages of chemical tanker Sichem Peace earlier seized on July 6, 2009. The militant group says, “the release of the hostages was a "dividend" of their 60-day truce, but said the government should reciprocate by withdrawing troops in communities of the Niger Delta as a pre-requisite to peace talks.”

 

Governors of the south-south (Niger Delta) threaten to pull-out of the federal government’s amnesty deal to militants in the region. After an exhaustive meeting in Asaba, Delta state, the Governors observe what they call insincerity on the part of the federal government towards the Niger Delta and threaten to pull out if their fears are not adequately addressed.[37] The president invites the governors to Aso Rock in Abuja and has a closed-door meeting and promises to reverse the decisions in favor of the Niger Delta region.

 

President Umar Yar'Adua meets with 32 leaders of various militant groups from the Niger Delta at the State House, Abuja. Accompanied by Governor Timipre Silva of Bayelsa State, the militants publicly renounce violence and accept the amnesty offer of the federal government. At a ceremony, which lasts about 20 minutes in Abuja and is attended by top security operatives and government officials, leaders of the militant groups publicly pledge to work with government to bring about peace and development in the region. The president, who describes the action of the militants to renounce violence and embrace the amnesty offer as extraordinarily courageous and a rare display of patriotism, promised that his administration will do everything within human capability to ensure that it addresses all the issues that led to the struggle in the first place.

Ebikabowei Victor Ben (alias General Boyloaf) who spoke on behalf of the 32 repentant militants, reminded the government of what led to the crisis in the Niger Delta. "Our people are hungry and dying. Our infrastructure is in a deplorable state, our communities have no water and light, oil spills and gas flaring is the order of the day. In fact, you need to visit the region to see things for yourselves. Our youths are unemployed and this is the same region that produces over 90 per cent of our national income." He wondered how the youths from the region could fold their arms and watch the future of the generation yet unborn crumble before their eyes.[38] The MEND militant group in an email to the media and public disassociates itself from the meeting and says Boyloaf, one of its commanders in the Bayelsa axis, is no longer in the fold and doing his personal bidding for self-aggrandizement.

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