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Following Ibori's Security Clampdown, Militias Declare Ceasefire in Warri

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
June 2, 2004
Posted to the web June 2, 2004

By Onwuka Nzeshi
Warri
After seven years of fighting from blood-soaked trenc-hes, leaders of Itsekiri
and Ijaw ethnic militias, the warring groups in the violent conflicts in Warri,
Delta State, yesterday declared a total cease-fire.
In what observers described as the immediate consequence of the special
security operation lauched recently by the Delta State Governor James Ibori,
leaders of the militias pledged to pursue a new initiative geared towards
peaceful co-existence and re-integration of the feuding nationalties.
In what has also been described as the dawn of a new era in the peace process,
leaders of the various ethnic youth organisations believed to have been the
field commanders of the dreaded militia groups engaged in the Warri fratricidal
wars met for the first time in many years and swore to keep the peace.
The hitherto warring groups jointly addressed a world press conference under a
new name - Warri Ijaw/Itsekiri Grassroots Peace Front (WIIGPF) during which the
declaration for peace was made yesterday.
Kingsley Otuavo, an Ijaw who read the 'testament of peace', stated that the era
of bloodshed and unbridled violence was over.
"We members of the Warri Itsekiri/Ijaw Grassroots Peace Front (WIIGPF), a
coalition of grassroots leaders from both ethnic groups; on behalf of our
people, are happy to announce to the Nigerian nation that we are greatly
concerned about the failures occasioned by the protracted violence in the area
(Warri) and vehemently express our discontent with the state of affairs and
hereby convey our collective resolution to chart a new course in the interest
of our treasured future. We yearn for a halt to the violence and look forward
to a new dawn.
"We come before you today as a people who have been entangled in a vicious
cycle of violence for nearly a decade. For years now, we have depleted huge
human and natural resources, relentlessly scared away investments, recklessly
rendered our people homeless and in fact ushered in a period of unrest
characterised by a rise in crime rate including armed robbery, piracy, rape,
and high mortality rate, just to mention but a few," said Otuavo.
Otuavo expressed deep regret at the recent killings of three military officers,
two American oil workers and two crew members on board a ChevronTexaco workboat
along the Benin River, saying "we condemn this act in absolute terms for it is
an act intolerable."
The killings led to the suspension of the production of about 140,000 barrels
per day of Nigeria's crude oil by ChevronTexaco, which in monetary terms
translated to a daily loss of $4.76 million revenue.
The violence in the Warri area is also responsible for the loss of about 60,000
bpd of oil production by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Militants
youths in the area blew up the Escravos crude pipeline, which cut supply to the
Warri and Kaduna refineries output and the eventual closure of the plants.
The Federal Government said the country was losing on the average $10 billion
revenue yearly to the crises in Warri and other Niger Delta areas.
Governor Ibori in a special statement released on Sunday, said the special
security operations had already begun at Orugbo, Ode Itsekiri as well as a
settlement called Warri Corner, in the bid to check the manace of pirates, oil
bunkerers and armed robbers.
Ibori also warned that the government would not spare community leaders who
aid, abet or offer shelter to criminals.
THISDAY checks revealed that the community leaders also got stern warnings from
the Joint Military Task Force (Operation Restore Hope), to work for peace or be
prosecuted in the event of any further breakout of hostilities or criminal acts
in the flashpoints of the Warri battle field.
At yesterday's press conference were community leaders, members of the joint
military task force and local and foreign journalists.

   

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