Obasanjo orders immediate arrest of militants

President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday ordered the immediate arrest of ethnic militants who unleashed two weeks of violence in Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta that caused scores of deaths and halted oil operations. Obasanjo told a delegation of women from the Itsekiri community in his office that he had directed all the security agencies to take immediate steps to restore order in the area and apprehend "the culprits". The women had asked for urgent government intervention to end the crisis. At least 100 people, including 10 soldiers were killed in the violence, which first broke out between the Ijaw and Itsekiri communities. Troops sent to quell the violence were later drawn into deadly confrontations with Ijaw fighters. Oil transnationals ChevronTexaco, Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFinaElf were forced to close their operations in the affected area, cutting back Nigeria's two-million-barrel daily oil output by 40 percent - about 800,000 barrels. "A situation where innocent citizens, soldiers and naval personnel carrying out their legitimate duties are killed is not one in which I will fold my arms and do nothing," Obasanjo said. He added that the militants must be punished for crimes against fellow citizens and national resources. The president's statement has further raised fears that the military authorities might carry out reprisal attacks against the Ijaw communities where the soldiers were killed. Similar warnings by Obasanjo had preceded the invasion of Odi in the Niger Delta in 1999 and Zaki Biam in central Nigeria in 2001, where hundreds of people were killed by troops after local militias had killed soldiers. Earlier this month the United States cut military aid to Nigeria, citing the killings in central Nigeria as the reason for the action. The latest conflict in the Niger Delta is linked to a violent dispute which broke out in the Delta town of Warri in February between the Urhobo and the Itsekiri communities over the delineation of electoral wards ahead of April-May general elections. The Ijaws sided with the Urhobo, alleging that the allocation of wards was in favour of the Itsekiri.