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Author: Tony Ikasaja
Posted to the web: 9/12/2005 1:48:23 AM

Between December 1998 and February 1999, local, state and federal elections were held in Nigeria, which led to the inauguration on May 29, 1999 of the first civilian government in Nigeria for sixteen years. Nigerians greeted this development with great joy and happiness. Little did they know that the difference between Gen. Obasanjo of 1976 and President Obasanjo of 1999 was just a change from uniform to “agbada” At around 2 p.m. in the afternoon of Saturday November 20, 1999, barely six months after inauguration, President Obasanjo was to fire its first savour of what to come in his government by approving the invasion of Odi by military forces. A small community of less than 15,000 people in Bayelsa state. The troops demolished every single building and hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed. Press reports stated that 2,000 soldiers were deployed from the Second Amphibious Brigade. They were transported in more than twenty vehicles, including several armored personnel carriers (APCs) mounted with machine guns, three 81 mm mortars and two 105 mm howitzers were used to shell the town. By the time the soldiers left on December 1, every single building in the town except the bank, the Anglican Church and the health centre had been destroyed, with only walls left standing at best and all items of value looted. Just few weeks before the crisis in Odi, the community of Choba, Rivers State, faced its own confrontation with soldiers. Choba is an Ikwerre community which is the site of the federal University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT). On October 28, a number of soldiers and mobile police came to Choba and dispersed demonstrators at the Willbros Nigeria Limited gates. Several people were killed, many injured and at least sixty-seven women were raped. In March and April 2000, repressive force was once again used in Ogoniland, River State, home of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) of which Ken Saro-Wiwa was leader before his 1995 execution. Paramilitary Mobile Police were deployed following disturbances in objection to development projects to be funded by Shell, killed at least one civilian, razed a number of buildings, and arrested several Ogoni activists, including Ledum Mitee, a MOSOP leader. In June 2000 police in Abia State were reported to have said that a police task force guarding fuel pipelines had killed people in the area of Umuahia, the state capital -- an unspecified number in gunfights in April and seven in a gunfight in a later incident near Ekenobizi. All were alleged to have been caught in the act of stealing fuel from ruptured pipelines. According to unofficial information, on 13 June Ikechi Nwogu, an unarmed youth, was killed by members of the task force on suspicion of involvement in stealing fuel near the village of Mbutu-Umuka, Osisioma local government area, near the town of Aba. He was said to have been shot dead in circumstances suggesting that he posed no threat to the security forces and was a victim of unlawful killing. The task force is alleged to have killed others and to have raided villages in the Osisioma area in September and November 2000, driving out inhabitants and looting and burning property of relatives or associates of suspected fuel thieves. In September 2000 members of a paramilitary police unit were reported to have fired indiscriminately on residents of several villages in Delta State. Representatives of the State House of Assembly reported that officers sent to protect fuel pipelines had fired on residents, burned and ransacked homes, and looted property in raids on villages. On 17 October 2000 at least eight youths were reported killed when troops guarding an oil facility belonging to Agip, the Italian oil company, fired on protestors from the nearby town of Olugbobiri, Bayelsa State. About 50 youths had approached an Agip flow station in speedboats, reportedly with the intention of shutting down production following disagreement with the company over a community road-building project. This incident bears similarities to an earlier one on 19 April 1999, when troops guarding an Agip facility at Ikebiri, Bayelsa State, killed at least seven youths after they shot at two speedboats. Two traditional rulers travelling in the boats reported being detained by the military for more than a week and severely beaten. There has been no independent investigation into any of these reports of killings and armed raids by the security forces, or of previous such killings since May. An internal inquiry was apparently held when armed forces officers were reported to have carried out some reprisal killings in September 1999 in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, but no results were made public. There was no independent investigation into reports of rapes and beatings by the security forces in Choba near Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, in October 1999 after the community staged protests against Wilbros, a US company. Between 2001 and 2004, there were clashes that resulted in the indiscriminate killing of local people, displacement of tens of thousands of villagers from their homes, and forcing the oil industry to evacuate staff and scale back its production. Most hit were the communities of Escravos and the Ugborodo community of the Itsekiris. Most recently in the community of Odioma, on the morning of Saturday 19 February 2005 destruction was carried out by a Joint Task Force of army and navy deployed to the area to maintain peace, law and order. According to reports, more than 30 people were killed and 90% of the buildings in the community were burnt down, thousands of people were displaced. There has been a huge rise in harassment and intimidation of Human Rights Activists. Arrests, Torture and some cases systematic killings of youth activists in the Niger Delta. The arbitrary detention and subsequent torture of Mr. Michael Etukudoh, member Coalition for the Niger Delta Campaign (CNDC), and Mr. Yakub Sule a member of the Delta Youth Development Council (DYDC) is a clear testimony of the government use of force to silence its critics. Recent reports say their whereabouts is still unknown. We hereby call on the immediate withdrawal of troops from the Niger Delta region. A judicial enquiry should be carried out by an independent body to bring to justice those behind this unholy act. Special thanks must go to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Civil Liberties Organization, local Human Rights Organizations and the brave activists who have risen up against this oppressive government of Rtd. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. Bravo to you all! Mr. Tony Ikpasaja
Rights for Niger Delta People.