Niger Delta militia surrendering weapons for cash

An ethnic militia group which threatened to kill foreign oil workers in southeastern Nigeria last month has started handing in its weapons under a guns-for-cash peace deal agreed with the government. Moujahid Dokubo-Asari told IRIN on Friday that his Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) had surrendered a total of 196 assault rifles and two general purpose machine guns to the government over the past week. Most of the weapons were handed over at a ceremony in the oil city of Port Harcourt on Thursday, he added. Dokubo-Asari said this was only a start since his militia force had over 3,000 guns in its arsenal. And he made clear that the government was paying cash for every firearm handed in. “We’re also getting a good price for the weapons,” he told IRIN by telephone from Port Harcourt. “We can’t give them to the Nigerian state for free. We bought them with money.” Rivers State governor Peter Odili, who heads the government's disarmament committee, confirmed the hand over of weapons in a statement, saying it was the sure way to peace. The NDPVF is a militia force that claims to be fighting for political autonomy and a bigger slice of oil revenues for the Ijaw ethnic group, the largest tribe in the Niger Delta. The region produces nearly all of Nigeria's 2.5 million barrels per day oil output. However, its inhabitants are angry that they continue to live in poverty while successive governments have squandered billions of dollars of revenue derived from the oil beneath their feet. In late September the NDPVF gave the oil companies an ultimatum to close down their operations within three days or face attacks on their personnel as part of a full-scale war against the government. The threat sent world oil prices soaring to record highs of more than US$50 a barrel and prompted President Olusegun Obasanjo to send a special plane to fetch Dakubo-Asari for crisis talks in the capital Abuja. Until then, the armed forces had been waging war on his guerrilla force in the swampy creeks of the delta with the aid of gunboats and helicopter gunships. The government agreed to address Dokubo-Asari's political demands at the talks in Abuja, which ended with a commitment by the NDPVF and a rival, pro-government militia force, the Niger Delta Vigilantes (NDV) to disarm. The NDV, led by Ateke Tom, has so far handed in more than 600 assault rifles, according to the Rivers State government. Dokubo-Asari said earlier this month when the deal was hammered out that he would only hand over his weapons if the government paid US$1,800 for each rifle. That is a steep price in West Africa, where in some conflict-ridden countries, Russian designed AK-47 automatic rifles can be bought on the black market for less than $100. Dokubo-Asari declined to reveal on Friday how much the NPDVF was actually getting for each surrendered weapon. The NDPVF, which finances itself by tapping oil from pipelines and selling it illegally to tankers waiting offshore, has been involved in heavy fighting with government troops and a rival militia force in the Port Harcourt area for several months. Dokubo-Asari is viewed as a hero by many in the Niger Delta. He was greeted by cheering crowds when he returned to Port Harcourt on 2 October after his initial round of talks with Obasanjo.