Blood For Oil Project: Unraveling Obasanjo's Covert Actions In Niger Delta

Barely a few days from the unravelling of the Obasanjo-led Government’s “Fresh Agenda for Bigger Crisis in Niger Delta”, internal squabbles amongst groups claiming to be representing the interests of the Niger Delta people are fast assuming dangerous dimensions that may culminate in a bloody battle for supremacy by the different groups. The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) a newer and previously unknown coalition has started singing discordant tunes with other existing groups especially the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), the first harmonized coalition of diverse groups in the region.

Declarations from the two coalitions last week clearly showed that the confusion has already started and knowing the manner events happen in the region, this will obviously lead to a violent military confrontation between them except leaders of the groups quickly catch the message that the amber of disunity is being fanned from outside the region by Government and its collaborators in the region.
 
Hear one of the coalition groups: “On behalf of the Joint Revolutionary Council and all other alliance groups in its coalition, I, Colonel Umar Suku Amachree wish to announce a full-stand down on a planned Operation Black November. In furtherance, therefore, we advise all operating and operator companies to continue all operations without panic or frenzy.
 
“In line with the wishes and aspirations of our very- esteemed leader Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, there shall no more be any act of insurgency in our territories except in the case of reprisal action against an identified enemy.
 
“We call on all people of goodwill to impress on General Olusegun Obasanjo the need to eschew governance based on vindictiveness and intimidation. Such attitudes have continued to remain strong motivators to an increased insurgency in the Niger Delta”.

Meanwhile, the above statement is a direct opposite to the stance of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) whose leader and spokesman, Jomo Gbomo was very plain when he warned both the oil companies and the Nigerian government that the JRC is not known to it and not empowered to negotiate or make a declaration on its behalf.”
 
“We wish to refute claims of any kind of relationship between us and a group claiming to be the joint revolutionary council. We do not know these individuals, have never heard of them and have no collaboration with this group if it indeed exists.
 
“Our goal remains the destruction of the Nigerian oil industry and all who stand on the pathway to our objective. In good time we will redeem our pledge to the people of the Niger delta to halt altogether the rape of our land by the Nigerian government and conniving oil companies. Be warned, we have not entered into any negotiations with the Nigerian government or its representatives. Oil companies in the Niger delta are operating at their peril.
 
“We have long advised oil companies to consider divesting from the Nigerian industry or remedy the injustices in the Niger delta. They have long encouraged the Nigerian government and themselves to participate in the rape of the Delta. They will only begin to operate in peace when the stolen wealth of the delta is restored to its rightful owners.
 
“The world must be getting sick of Obasanjo's threats. His army commanders have assured him there can be no military victory in the delta. How does he hope to achieve this feat? The oil companies are much wiser now and will rather have him open and operate these fields even at the cost of their licenses.”
 
Gbomo’s allegation that “Another means employed by the Nigerian government as its comprehensive solution to the problems in the delta, is sponsoring conferences in Abuja in which bribe is shared amongst indigenes of the delta collaborating with the Nigerian government and oil companies,” clearly underestimated the reasons for the “Abuja conferences.” The truth is that the strategies to destabilize the existing organised Niger Delta rights groups are being hatched in those conferences which have been going on not only in Abuja but in other strategic and military facilities across the nation.

Obviously based on its superintelligence report on the latest development in the Niger Delta, the U.S. Government on 3 November 2006, warned of a renewed spate of insurgency in the Niger Delta saying that militants in the region are planning a major new wave of attacks and kidnappings in the next few days (early part of November) that could include up to 20 simultaneous bombings across the country's oil-rich delta region, U.S. diplomats warned Friday.
 
The warning which came in an e-mailed statement sent to American citizens from the U.S. Consulate in Lagos confirmed that a renewed spate of violence was underway.

"The U.S. Government has learned that as of late October 2006, a militant Niger Delta group may have finalized its plans for a unified attack against oil facilities in the Niger Delta region," the statement said. "The attacks allegedly will be carried out sometime during the first week of November and will include 10 to 20 simultaneous bombings of land-based targets and a series of separate attacks on oil installations in which expatriate workers will be taken, hostage."

Unknown to the U.S. Embassy officials, the anticipated spate of violence was being dangled as a dummy by the new groups trained, armed and financed by the agents of the Federal Government to break the ranks of the well-coordinated existing groups such as MEND amongst others.
 
Though the U.S. Government did not give details of the anticipated attacks, it obviously would result from the fracture created in the ranks of the Niger Delta rights activists (militants) and orchestrated by the covert operations of the Obasanjo-led Government to subterfuge the efforts of the genuine activists who are agitating for redress in the development imbalance of the Niger Delta.
 
It is pathetic that instead of listening to the genuine complaints of the people of the region, the federal government has decided to pitch the people against each other to create unfettered access to the rich oil resources of the region. “You can fool some people for some time but you cannot fool all the Niger Delta people all the time”, this wise saying may interest the Government and its collaborators.
 
SENIOR FYNEFACE, ELELEWON STREET GRA II PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE