Foreigners among N'Delta criminals, says military
From Madu Onuorah (Abuja),Yetunde Ebosele and Taiwo Hassan (Lagos)

THE Defence Headquarters yesterday confirmed the involvement of foreigners in criminal activities in the Niger Delta. It also said that their presence and the strategic importance of the Gulf of Guinea to both Nigeria and the international community necessitated the presence of troops of the Nigerian military, under the banner of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the area.





The Director, Defence Information, Col. Chris Jemitola; the Director of Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen Emeka Onwuamaegbu; the Director of Naval Information, Commodore David Nabaida, in a joint briefing at the Defence Headquarters said the presence of the JTF was purely to maintain law and order.

The JTF consists of Operation Restore Hope, Operation Flushout 1 and Operation Flushout 3.

Nabaida noted: "The Gulf of Guinea has assumed a very strategic importance because of the hydrocarbon resources there. And some of the criminality in the area has been going on with the involvement of foreign elements. The JTF is not there to fight anybody. Their presence in the Niger Delta is to secure the interests of Nigeria. We can't afford to allow foreign elements to operate in the area.

Col. Jemitola added that the JTF was deployed in the Niger Delta "to maintain law and order. Nigeria cannot be at war with itself. The deployment is an Internal Security Operations (ISO), it is part of the military aid to civil authority, which the government found necessary to deploy troops to contain. And once a situation arises and the police are overwhelmed, the military will come in. There was a high unacceptable level of criminality in the area, which necessitated the establishment of the Joint Task Force. And they have secured the environment within which they were deployed, with the emergence of economic activities there. They are also to check illegal oil bunkering, vandalisation of facilities and kidnappings."

Brig Gen Onwuamaegbu, who spoke on the deployment of troops for Peace Support, explained that no member of the Nigerian contingent to the United Nations Peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo was at risk over the escalation of violence in the war-torn nation. Nigeria deployed some Military Observers (MILOBs) in the country under the UN banner.

According to him, "we have MILOBs in the DRC. We have no formed troops. And whenever they (MILOBs) are in harm's way, the UN Headquarters will direct them on what to do."

The Army Spokesman said that the Nigerian troops are getting set for the deployment to Somalia.

He added that "the logistics are being put in place. And once they were in place, troops will be deployed."

Explaining the deployment concept, Gen. Onwuamaegbu noted that "the Nigerian Army doesn't wake up to go into a trouble spot on its own. Wherever the government orders us to go, we are well-trained, well-equipped to go. It is the prerogative of the Federal Government to order us to go and where to go."

Meanwhile, crisis trailing the oil rich Niger Delta may be prolonged, except about $100 million (about N 11.8 billion) compensation owed host communities in the region by the oil companies operating in the upstream sector of the nation's oil and gas industry is promptly paid.

This was disclosed by a leader in the Niger Delta, Chief Edwin Clarke at the Plenary session of the ongoing Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)'s 13th Health Safety and Environment (HSE) biennial international conference on the oil and gas industry in Abuja yesterday.

According to him, the unpaid compensation was a fallout from about 14,000 cases on environmental degradation instituted against oil companies by host communities.

According to Clark, unless the oil companies compensate the people in the Niger Delta, there would not be peace in the region because of the effect of environmental degradation.

"As I'm talking to you now, there are about 14,000 cases on environmental degradation brought by various host communities against the major oil companies worth about $100 million. And they don't want to pay. They will make sure their lawyers go to court to frustrate the host communities agitation," he said.

He lamented the continuous flaring of gas by the oil companies in the Niger Delta, adding that the issue was political because the government is not ready to end gas flaring.

He said: "The government is not interested in ending gas flaring. It is only because of the climate change that affected the whole world. Gas flaring in Nigeria is one of the highest in the oil communities in the whole world.

"The Federal Government said in 2008, gas flaring would come to an end. But when I was delivering a similar lecture some years ago, I said yes, every government has a date for ending gas flaring. We are now hearing about 2014. Perhaps, 2020 would be the year gas flaring would end."

He berated the Federal Government move for spending N400 billion on security in the Niger Delta, adding that the influx of soldiers in the area had caused more havoc to the people, adding that this move would not bring about succour to the region.

Applauding the creation of the Niger Delta Ministry, Clark appealed to government to allocate three to five per cent of the nation's revenue earnings to run the ministry, adding that this was the only way the creation of the ministry would be vibrant.


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/nov/5/11.html

I've been proved right once again when some naysayers were pounding on the rape issue.