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Niger Delta Fund Initiative: Warri Crisis: FG Considers Full-scale Military Action
House requests judicial commission as violence worsens
http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20030820news01.html
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja and Onwuka Nzeshi in Warri
8/20/2003Worried by the use of sophisticated weapons of war by the militant youths prosecuting the disturbance in Warri, Delta State the Federal Government may be getting set to resort to full scale military action in the area.
As part of the preparation for a military response to the crisis, Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, will today meet with heads of security agencies.
It is believed the government decision to treat the Warri crisis as a full scale military uprising was reached at a high-level meeting convened yesterday by President Olusegun Obasanjo to fine-tune the immediate movement of troops to Warri to curtail further bloodshed and destruction of lives and properties.
The government is said to be particularly disturbed by the number of policemen and military officers who have been killed in the disturbance.
The security meeting believed that "where some militant youths are making security agents targets of their ethnic motivated and illegal attacks, the full weight of the nation's military might be used to deal with them."
A presidency source told THISDAY that the security chiefs are of the opinion that government should move swiftly to send "a clear signal" to the Warri youths and their sponsors that they "have gone beyond the bounds of decency to threatening national security."
The source noted that about 20 policemen had lost their lives in the Warri crisis while many operational vehicles and equipment belonging to the police had been destroyed. Also, the crisis is believed to have deeply affected the nation's oil production and supply to the world market.
"The cost of the Warri crisis is now too enormous and the government has seen that its restrain from taking extreme measures to deal with the troublemakers is being taken for granted," the source said.
It is believed that the meeting between Ibori and security chiefs may be part of the final build-up to deployment of troops in the troubled oil-city.
In the last four years, the Obasanjo administration has had to deploy military troops with great consequence to quel the disturbances in Odi, Bayelsa State and Zaki Biam in Benue State.
In these two instances, the militant groups had killed policemen and soldiers with impunity thereby compelling government to deploy troops into the place. The military action in Odi left the village thoroughly razed while in Zaki Biam several people were killed and houses torched by soldiers who executed the assignment as a brutal murder of their ambushed colleagues by some Tiv militants.
The president has also given approval for the immediate drafting of nine units mobile policemen to the troubled area to check further outbreak of violence.
The supervision of the Warri operations was assigned by the meeting to the Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun. The mission will be headed by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police AIG) in charge of Zone 5, Mr. Gazali Lawal.
Presidential spokesperson, Mrs. Remi Oyo, yesterday told State House Correspondents that the units are to support efforts of security agencies already in Warri to restore peace and normalcy.
While stating that the Federal Government was worried about reports which indicate that some of the warring parties are equipped with very sophisticated weapons, she said the President is deeply concerned about the escalating violence in Warri.
"The President is particularly pained that citizens of the same town, who have been neighbours, and in some cases, relations for a long time, have had to resort to violence to resolve their problems," Oyo added.
According to the presidential spokesperson, the Federal Government will however continue to monitor the Warri situation closely and if it becomes necessary, will not hesitate to take further action.
"Governor James Ibori is expected to meet the federal security agencies today to find a lasting and permanent solution to the recurrent outbreak of violence in Warri.
"President Obasanjo urges all parties to the crisis in Warri to embrace the cause of peace. He urges all the people of the area not to create further opportunities for unscrupulous elements to use the crisis as a cover for the continued bleeding of the national economy through the vandalisation of crude oil pipelines and theft of petroleum products.
"President Obasanjo reminds all Nigerians that the country must have peace to achieve the much needed growth and development," part of the statement read.
However, reports from the oil city yesterday indicated that the warring ethnic groups sustained their violent campaigns for control, setting more houses ablaze and indulging in open street battles in broad day light.
THISDAY observed that while the militant youths deployed various sophisticated weapons with impunity, soldiers kept their distance from the war zone, apparently to aviod being trapped in the cross fire between the Ijaw and Itsekiri militants.
A visit to the war zone yesterday revealed an apparent helpless scenario the defenceless civilians resident in Warri have been subjected to in the last four days.
A local source had predicted that the battle would resume at 10:00am yesterday and just ten minutes before the hour, four speedboats filed out from a creek overlooking the NNS Delta Navy base, Warri.
Each boat conveyed about ten armed militia men and flew a white flag. As they raced past the waterfront of the Navy base, a barrage of gun shots rent the air, forcing people in the vicinity to scramper for safety.
Soon after, a thick cloud of smoke enveloped the morning sky. It was obvious that the militants that alighted from the boats at a nearby jetty had flagged off the day's battle with buildings serving as bonfire.
"Our hands are tied. This crisis has become highly politicised. When the battle was one sided, we were able to cage the armed youths and prevent them from launching attacks. But now both sides are poised to fight and any attempt by the military to stop one group from advancing would be seen as a biased operation.
"They (warring groups) have always criticised the military and accused us of taking sides. So what do we do in such a situation? Remain neutral until they are tired of fighting and ready to embrace peace", a senior military officer told THISDAY yesterday.
THISDAY checks revealed that security operatives have adopted the "minimal intervention" order said to have been handed down by the military high command to peace keeping troops as a way of maintaining neutrality in the eyes of the public as well as minimising military casualties..
Meanwhile, civil society groups have condemned the concept of militarisation as a solution to the ethnic crisis in Warri, arguing that sustainable peace cannot be imposed on the feuding parties but could be entrenched when all the parties to the dispute have been brought together to negotiate peace.
One of the groups, he Niger Delta Professional for Development (NIDPRODEV) yesterday urged the federal government and the Delta state government to facilitate a peace parley amongst the warring groups without any further delay.
The Poverty Alleviation Support Organisation (PASO) in its own reaction, expressed dismay at the spate of the violence in Warri and the Niger Delta at large. In a statement endorsed by Messrs Dickson Ozuruigbo and Oyakhilome Cyril, national co-ordinator and secretary, respectively, the group urged government to create the enabling environment for the warring groups to dialogue in order to resolve the conflict.
Also, the House of Representatives yesterday condemned the renewed ethnic crisis in Warri, mandating its Committee on Peace and Reconciliation to investigate it.
Similarly, the House requested that a judicial commission, to be headed by a Court of Appeal or Supreme Court judge, be constituted to probe the immediate and remote causes of the clashes and identify persons behind the mayhem.
The action by the House comes two days after the Senate had taken a similar action.
Today's resolution by the House followed a motion by Hon. Mutu Nicholas (PDP-Delta), urging the House to intervene in the crisis, saying it had defied several attempts at resolution.
Within the last one week, he said, the fighting between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri had claimed hundreds of lives and property worth millions of naira.
In addition, thousands of people had been rendered homeless, Nicholas said.
In separate contributions, members condemned the crisis, saying it could discourage potential investors, especially in the oil and gas sector.
House Speaker Aminu Masari is billed to lead a delegation to the affected areas.
http://www.earthrights.net/nigeria/news/militaryaction.html