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Warri Killings:the Untold Story

Vanguard (Lagos)
ANALYSIS
May 15, 2004
Posted to the web May 17, 2004

By Blessyn Okpowo And Kingsley Omonobi

It was one story that jolted the nation that Saturday morning when the
newspapers reported it. A total of six persons on a mission to assess oil and
gas facilities in Dibi and Olero creek fields on the Benin river belonging to
Chevron Texaco Nigeria were killed allegedly by heavily armed youths.
The objective of the mission was to prepare the said fields for reopening by
ChevronTexaco Nigeria. The facilities were abandoned in March last year in the
wake of ethnic clashes between the Ijaws and the Itsekiris in the area. Two of
those killed were American nationals, Denny Fowler, from Dallas Texas and Ryne
Hathaway both attached to the International Building Systems (IBS), a
contracting firm working for ChevronTexaco.
The attack was a clear and dangerous departure from the known pattern of the
Niger-Delta youths who have given the agitation for better treatment of the
people of the region a violent colouration by kidnapping expatriate workers in
the oil industry. Never for once has it been reported that the youths ever
harmed the foreigners who work in the oil-rich zone.
The farthest they would go is to hold them hostage and use them as negotiating
tools to extract money from the oil companies. When therefore the report of the
killings came, it raised a number of questions. Questions that prompted a team
of Vanguard Newspaper to embark on a tour of the region.
For five days, the team toured the heartland of the Niger Delta beginning from
Rivers through Bayelsa rounding up in Delta State.
Contrary to the widely held belief that the expatriates were killed by the
warring Ijaw and Itsekiri youths, our investigations revealed that the attack
was carried out by a band of professional sea pirates who provide security
cover to oil bunkerers who steal crude from the creeks of the Niger Delta and
ship the stolen crude in barges to the high sea to be sold in the thriving
crude oil black market on the high seas. One of the youth leaders who spoke to
Vanguard on condition of strict anonymity said: "There is no way anybody is
going to hang the killing of the Americans and the Naval personnel on the neck
of the Niger Delta youths.
The style and pattern of those people that attacked the Americans are different
from what the youths here are known for. Our own investigations showed that
there was heavy exchange of gun fire between the Naval escort and the attackers
and if you know Olero and Dibi fields very well, they are not like the other
creeks in the interior of the Niger Delta where you can catch anybody on aware.
" Anybody who wants to attack a military team must be ready and must know that
he is going in for a gun duel. It is like a suicide mission and unless you are
sure of overpowering your opponent, you don't dare. This is why we are
convinced that the attackers must have prepared for the mission. The
investigators must look deeper than just the youths of this area if they really
want to fish out the culprits.
"As a matter of fact, the second attack on the team returning from relief duty
was meant to tell the authorities that this was not just an ordinary attack. If
you attack a military team a few days earlier which resulted in loss of lives
of military personnel, and in this case even American expatriates were killed,
you should know that security would be stepped up, and everybody's eyes would
be red. So any right thinking person would keep away from that area because
experience in the Niger Delta has shown that there certainly would be reprisal
attacks especially when military men and in this case expatriates were killed.
If nothing else points to this, the experience of Odi should serve as a
reminder.
"But for the people to attack the military men who were returning from relief
duty must tell you that it is more than just the youths. Even if government
offers N200 million as ransome, they are not likely to get these people because
they would be looking at the wrong direction," the youth leader opined.
If the attack was not carried out by the youths, who could be behind it? Why
should the pirates operate on a creek as inland as the Benin river and not on
the high seas? Another youth leader who claims to have deep knowledge of the
area said: "One thing you must realise is that since the closure of the Olero
and Dibi oil fields last year, the Benin river route has been very quiet and
therefore safe for the Oil bunkers to operate.
They can easily come with their barges, load the crude inside and escort them
to the high sea for sale. As a matter of fact, that route has been one of the
most lucrative for these people. When ChevronTexaco tried to open their flow
stations there, what they were trying to do therefore is to deprive these
people of the use of that route. So they had to take a drastic action that will
automatically strike fear in the mind of ChevronTexaco.
" What they tried to do first was to cause trouble between the two ethnic
groups but they did not succeed in this primarily because the Itsekiris have
shifted their attention to fighting Ibori over the Community Development
Associations and nobody from that angle was ready to listen to them. And when
the Ijaw youths would not play ball too, they resorted to this killings.
Don't forget that there have been some very interesting developments in Ijaw-
Itsekiri relations since the 28-man joint consultative committee of the Ijaws
and Itsekiris was set up. The committee has fourteen representatives from each
side and they have been meeting regularly to iron out the differences between
the two groups and they have recorded tremendous success.
"So when these people saw that they could not get the Ijaws and the Itsekiris
to the battle field to fight and create fresh and false tension to scare
ChevronTexaco away so that they can carry out the stealing of crude oil, they
had to launch an attack and that is why these people were killed," he
concluded.
In an interview with the Vanguard, the Commander of the Joint Security Task
Force for the Niger Delta code named Operation Restore Hope, Brigadier General
Elias Zamani confirmed that the attack came as a big surprise. "We had
everywhere properly covered. Our men have been able to take control of a large
portion of the area and for some time now, there has been peace in the Niger
Delta. You, the press, can attest to this fact. There was no indication from
anywhere that there was trouble brewing, no security report gave any clue to
that. That was why immediately it happened, we move in and nipped it in the
bud.
"We got the report of the attack on Friday evening, so we moved in to secure
the place but we could not get the bodies out of the river. So first thing the
next day, we moved in with our divers and we were able to get five bodies. The
next day, we picked up one more person making a total of six. And since then,
there has been peace in that area. We have moved our men to that area and
everything is under control. Everybody should go about their legitimate duties
and I want to assure all law abiding citizens that they have nothing to fear",
he declared.
General Zamani denied media reports that American Marines have arrived Niger
Delta in the wake of the killings to assist his task force to fish out the
culprits. "I am just hearing that from you. If there are American Marines
coming, I should be in a position to know. The Americans don't send their
troops anywhere and make it a secret. If anything like that is to happen, the
international press will report it and I am not sure I have read or heard
anything pertaining to that anywhere else than in the Nigerian press.
I want to tell you that there is nothing like that. In any case, we do not need
the American Marines here in the Niger Delta. You can quote me on this, that we
do not need the assistance of the American Marines in this operation. The Joint
Military Security Task Force, otherwise known as Operation Restore Hope is very
capable of taking care of the security situation here and we don't need any
assistance from anybody."
Zamani confirmed that the federal and state government has provided all they
require to do their job. "You know it is not easy to provide all the needs of
any human being. But in this particular instance, the government has been very
supportive. They have been able to provide us with all our needs and I want to
use this medium to assure them that we are equal to the task they have given us
and as I said earlier, all law abiding citizens should go about their normal
duty as there is no cause for alarm. We are keeping the peace and anybody who
try to threaten the peace would be severely dealt with no matter how highly
placed you may be", he warned.
Chief Adolo Okotie-Eboh, a former PDP senate aspirant believes that the
perpetrators of the crime could not have acted alone.
"These boys are being sponsored by the elites. They could not have been doing
this all alone. But I must advise these youths that the children of those
asking them to fight, kidnap and kill are all schooling abroad so they must be
wise and let peace reign," he advised.
He is of the opinion that one of the ways to resolve the crisis in Delta State
is for the government to immediately conduct elections into the three Warri
local councils. "This way, the youths can have leaders amongst them who they
can run to. To me this is one of the solutions to the crisis", he said.
Tension brews in Irri:
If Zamani says there is no cause for alarm in Warri, the same cannot be said of
Irri, an oil producing community in Isoko South local government area. When the
Vanguard team visited the community during the tour of the Niger Delta, we
discovered a community that was literarily sitting on a keg of gun powder and
if something drastic is not done to arrest the situation, the next crisis in
the volcanic Niger Delta may well erupt in Irri.
The roots of the problem in Irri could be traced to 1988 when the Nigerian Agip
Oil Company (NAOC) discovered two new oil wells in the community which they
named Irri1 and Irri2. Unfortunately for the Italian oil giants at that time,
the wells contained just 10% crude oil and 90% natural gas. So they simply
capped them (sealed them) and left. But with the new direction in the oil
industry where government is trying to shift attention to the gas sector of the
oil industry, the company decided to visit the wells again since they are rich
in natural gas. This coincided with the company's multi million dollar gas
project in Okpai in Ndokwa East local government of Delta state where the
company is building an expansive gas plant said to be one of the largest in
sub-Saharan Africa.
The two Irri wells were therefore conceived to supply gas through pipelines to
the Okpai plant.
Some of the community's prominent sons however made representations to Agip
urging them to build a flow station at Irri with the assurance that the
community would provide land and the enabling environment for the company to
operate. Thus, in January 26, 2000, representatives of the community and Agip
Oil met to discuss terms on the siting of the flow station.
Having agreed on terms, the company sent a team to survey the site provided by
the community and by February 7, 2001, the flow station was approved. Five
months later, a public forum was organized for all stake holders at the
Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Warri for the Environmental Impact
Assessment (E.I.A). All this while, things worked smoothly between the
community and the oil company.
Trouble however started when it was time to award the contract for the sand
filling of the site for the flow station whose contract sum was valued at about
N450 million. After the company published the advertisement calling for tenders
from interested companies to bid for the contract in compliance with
regulations of the NNPC, the community met and agreed that the contract must be
awarded to an indigenous company owned by a member of the community.
Thus Okefena Nigeria Limited, a Port Harcourt-based construction firm owned by
Mr. Efe Okah was recommended by the traditional ruler of the community His
Royal Highness Ojenuwe II, the Odio-Ologbo of Irri kingdom, through a letter
ref. Number OD/OJ/VOL.1/V/O/002 and dated 28th January 2002 as the preferred
company to do the job.
Unfortunately for Mr. Okah, he took ill immediately before the contract was to
be awarded. This was after he had submitted the relevant documents to the
company. He was thus flown abroad for treatment. While he was recuperating
abroad, things began to happen at dizzying pace. Sources that spoke to Vanguard
alleged that his wife, who took over the running of the company while the
husband was away, felt that was the time to carry out some cleansing in the
company. Several of the staff were sacked without benefits, the source alleged.
"One of the sacked workers who happened to come from the same community who
ironically prepared the contract papers for the company went to a competitor of
Okefena Nigeria Limited in the contract bidding and revealed the contract sum
quoted by Okefena. The company consequently withdrew her original quotation and
submitted a new one with figures lower that those quoted by Okefena," the
source revealed.
But Vanguard investigations revealed that the sacked aggrieved staff did more
than that in order to ensure that his former company did not get the contract.
He allegedly took the owner of the rival company, Zerock Construction Limited,
a Lebanese, to the traditional ruler of the community and got another letter
recommending Zerock as the new company preferred by the community to be awarded
the contract. Vanguard gathered that the Lebanese paid the sum of One hundred
and fifty thousand naira to get a letter identifying him as an indigene of Irri
community. After obtaining a receipt from the community describing the payment
as homage and signed by one Chief Blessing Arovah, who claimed to be the deputy
to the traditional ruler, the Lebanese persuaded the Odio-Ologbo to also issue
another letter nullifying the earlier recommendation given to Okefena Nigeria
Limited.
Thus through a letter dated March 13th 2004 with ref number OD/OJ/VOL.1/004,
the traditional ruler Ojenuwe II, revoked the earlier recommendation issued to
his subject Mr. Efe Okah and thus recommended a company owned by a Lebanese as
the preferred company to execute the contract over the one owned by his
subject. It was therefore no surprise that armed with a letter of
recommendation from the traditional ruler of the community and with a quotation
lower than that of Okefena Nigeria Limited, Zerock Construction Limited was
awarded the contract to sand fill the site for the flow station.
Interestingly, Mr. Okah recovered and returned from abroad just at about the
same time that the contract was awarded and seeing that he has been out
maneuvered, he quickly went to his community and mobilized the people to resist
any attempt by Zerock to execute the contract. Within the period also, another
group of youths rose in defence of Zerock Construction. To them the community
has already committed the blunder and the Lebanese should be allowed to execute
the contract. Since then, the hitherto peaceful Irri community has been
engulfed in crisis that has resulted in the loss of several lives including a
police officer attached to the Oleh Police station and the burning and
destruction of properties worth millions of naira.
Several peace meetings brokered by prominent citizens of the community
including High Chief Sergent Uredi, Professor Pius Sada, former Vice Chancellor
of the Delta State University, Chief (Dr.) Idodo Umeh, a formmer Commissioner
for Agriculture in the then Bendel state in the second republic as well as
Chief Mallam Obi, a prominent Isoko leader and father of the chairman of the
Board of Directors of Delta Printing and Publishing Company, publishers of the
Pointer Newspapers Dr. Eniforo Obi have yielded little results. The situation
got so bad that Chief Benjamin Elue, the deputy governor of Delta state and
Chief Macaulay Ovuzorie, Commissioner for Conflicts Resolution in Delta state
who happens to be an Isoko man had to intervene. Yet the combatants have
refused to sheath their swords.
As at the time of going to press, Vanguard gathered that Mr Okah has agreed
that Zerock Construction Limited be awarded the contract while his company
Okefena Nigeria Limited was appointed the public relations consultants to the
project. What this arrangement simply means, we were told is that Zerock would
have to go through Okefena Nigeria Limited in any dealings with the Irri
Community while every request and complaint by the community would be made
through Okah's company.
One would expect that this arrangement would guarantee peace in the community
since the matter appeared to have been settled. But the reverse is the case.
Investigations revealed that the group who were initially backing Zerock
Construction Limited in the community feel they have been used and dumped and
are insisting that unless they are compensated, Zerock will not execute the
contract. On the other hand a new group has emerged with the rather frightening
name of "I Go Die Boys" and have given themselves the mandate of "ensuring that
Zerock is not molested while executing the contract, by anybody".
People in the community who spoke to Vanguard alleged that the "I Go Die Boys"
are now the rulers of the community. A house wife who requested anonymity told
us that "the Boys harasses the women when they are going to their farms
demanding all sorts of ransome from us before we are allowed free passage to
our farms. They are laws unto themselves in the community and everybody is
afraid of them."
Beyond molesting innocent citizens, the group has allegedly "vowed to deal with
the rival group anytime any of them tries to visit the site of the flow station
and they are armed with all sorts of dangerous weapons" It was gathered that
some of the members of the group who were arrested by the police and reminded
in detention at the Kwale Prisons were allegedly released on "orders from
Abuja" and this has led to heightened tension in the community.
On their parts, members of the community have vowed to flush out the "I Go Die
Boys" from the community and a show down is in the offing. The way things are
now, it is only a matter of time before Irri witnesses another explosion of
violence and killings. Unless of course the government moves in and nips the
crisis in the bud.

   

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