Posted by By HENRY CHUKWURAH, Port Harcourt, FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja, FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa, IKE NNAMDI, Washington D.C on
A member of the Rivers State House of Assembly was whisked away Monday by security agents in connection with last Saturday's mayhem in Port Harcourt in which several persons died.
A member of the Rivers State House of Assembly was whisked away Monday by security agents in connection with last Saturday's mayhem in Port Harcourt in which several persons died.
The legislator (name withheld) was taken away shortly after he showed up at the House to attend the day's sitting.
Sources said that security operatives were interrogating the lawmaker following the discovery of his campaign posters and other incriminating items inside a vehicle used by some suspected cultists involved in the gang-fighting that had turned the Garden city into a ghost town in the past one week.
The development comes as leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari raised alarm that the raging mayhem in the state capital and environs was a design to destabilize the country, using the Niger Delta as a launching pad.
The separatist leader, in a letter to the people of the state, said the crisis was being instigated by politicians to cause confusion and destabilize the country to the extent that Yar'Adua's government would be portrayed as being incompetent by the people, urging the president "to get to work without wasting any more time and safeguard the lives and property of our people and bring to book all those behind the violence."
But the government reacted on Monday, ruling out immediate military intervention which it said would only be a last resort "when it becomes extremely necessary."
The Minister of Defence, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, while receiving the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar, who paid him a visit in his office in Abuja, said the Federal Government had no intention to interfere in the internal security of the states, and that rather than deploy troops at the slightest provocation, it would exhaust dialogue and all available peaceful means to resolve crisis in the spirit of democracy.
The minister's statement could, however, not be understood, in light of reports of involvement of soldiers in containing the violence.
Amid this development, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) threatened on Monday to resume raids on oil installations and targets, in what signals loss of patience with the Umaru Yar'Adua administration's promise to tackle the Niger Delta question.
"We are getting increasingly frustrated with the government's unwillingness to address the core cause of agitation in the Niger Delta, our demand for ownership and control of our resources," MEND said in an e-mail message to a news agency, AFP.
"We may resume attacks against installations from the end of August if there is no drastic change in the government's attitude," it said, even as the United States of America and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) project that Nigeria would lose billions of dollars in revenue, and its position as a top oil exporting nation within five years, if the restiveness in the Niger Delta continues.
Armed cultists who were in mobile police uniforms were said to have attacked some soldiers stationed near the Government House, Port Harcourt, during the blood-letting recorded in several parts of the city and the suburbs.
Sighting the fake MOPOLmen initially, the soldiers had mistaken them for genuine combat policemen involved in the official effort to quell the violence.
The real identity of the ‘uniformed' occupants of one of the vehicles that drove past them soon dawned on the soldiers when the occupants suddenly opened fire on the military men.
The soldiers reportedly engaged them in a gun duel wounding the occupants of one of the vehicles.
Sensing trouble, the hoodlums reportedly carried their wounded colleagues into the other vehicle and fled, abandoning the one that had been damaged.
It was gathered that during a search of the vehicle, some incriminating items including the campaign poster of the legislator were found.
Efforts to get the spokesman of the Joint Task Force, Major Sagir Musa to comment on the arrest before press time drew blank.
According to Dokubo, the alleged destablisation plot is serious because of the weapons in the arsenal of those that have been recruited for the exercise which, he said, has already turned Port- Harcourt into a ghost town.He appealed to the people to stand up and resist the evil going on so as to free the people from living in fear.He distanced himself from the current violence, explaining that since he left Port- Harcourt on July 26, he had not set foot there again because he did not want to be drawn into the violence going on in the state.
"This evil cabal did all they could to lure me into the festival of carnage that they have unleashed on the people. They did everything they could to provoke me to join this crisis. They stole my car and then attacked my communities, Buguma and Obuama, but I will not be driven to go to war with my own people," he said.
Meanwhile, MEND says that it has stepped into the Port- Harcourt crisis to stop further carnage. The group through its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, told Daily Sun in an interview that its intervention was borne out of the need to save the people of the state and not to help the government because according to it, the government was part of the crisis as most of those involved in the killings were political thugs of politicians during the last general elections.
MEND in early July announced the end of a one-month truce, but has not actually claimed responsibility for any attack since it made that announcement. The ceasefire, announced June 3, was aimed at giving the government of President Yar'Adua a chance to resolve the unrest in the Niger Delta.
Yar'Adua's government fulfilled one of MEND's major demands, the release of jailed Dokubo-Asari.
Dokubo was released in June on health grounds after almost two years in prison awaiting trial on treason charges. His condition is linked to hypertension and diabetes. But MEND on Monday complained that Dokubo "turned (his) coat" after being freed and accused him of being an "informant and a spy for the Nigerian government."
Politically motivated attacks have become less frequent since Yar'Adua took office in late May. But kidnapping for ransom has continued unabated, with some criminal gangs targeting even small children in a new phenomenon.
The reaction by America and the oil cartel is the latest concern about the worsening security situation in the oil rich region. OPEC officials and top members of the US Energy Department said the estimate was based on disruptions on the production capacities of Nigeria which had been reduced to almost half by attacks on oil facilities and abduction of oil workers by militants.
The administration is also worried about its energy needs and the future of supplies from Nigeria.
"The administration turned to Nigeria after the unpredictability of the Middle East, but the sources of oil is now uncertain," an official said.
The administration is demanding that Abuja step up security in the area to secure its oil needs.
"We are anxiously awaiting the outcome of this latest security initiative by the Nigerian government and hope it would improve the level of security in the area, if not, we may be forced to look elsewhere for energy needs," a top administration official said.