Ijaw militants seize oil facilities

Militants from ethnic Ijaw communities in the west of Nigeria's Niger Delta oil region said on Tuesday they had shut down a number of oil facilities in protest at what they consider to have been cheating in the delineation of wards for the recent voter registration exercise. The group, which identified itself as the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC), said the oil facilities affected by their action belonged to oil giants Royal/Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco. The facilities, located at Odidi, Egwa, Jones Creek, Batan and Abiteye, were said to have a combined production capacity of over 350,000 barrels of crude oil daily. FNDIC alleged that ethnic rivals of the Ijaws, the Itsekiris, were favoured over them in the allocation of wards and registration centres in the area around the oil town of Warri, despite having a smaller population. "The Itsekiris were given 147 registration units while Ijaws had 40," Dan Ekpebiga, spokesman for FNDIC, told IRIN. "We protested to the government and other appropriate authorities, and there was so response, so we decided to take action to remind the government that so many resources are being taken from our area," he added. Ekpebiga said the number of wards allocated to Ijaws in the Warri area had also been progressively reduced from 10 to four, and that the Ijaws believe these administrative measures reflect a framework through which they will be denied access to resources and amenities. Shell officials confirmed that a number of its facilities had been shut down and evacuated after they were invaded by militants. "What we have tried to explain to them - so far without success - is that their grievances are political, have nothing to do with us, and should be directed at the government," a company spokesman told IRIN. ChevronTexaco officials were not available for comment. Between 1997 and 1999 hundreds of people died in clashes between Ijaws and Itsekiris around the town of Warri in disputes over the site of a local government headquarters. The trouble started after the headquarters of the Warri South local government was relocated from an Ijaw area to an Itsekiri one under the late Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha. The violence died down after 1999, when the elected civilian governor of Delta State, James Ibori, returned the local government headquarters to an Ijaw area.