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Suspected Pro-Gaddafi mercenaries arrive Kaduna, Nigeria

Over 100 people, suspected to be mercenaries that fought for the sacked Libyan Leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have arrived Kaduna through the Nigeria - Niger Republic border at the weekend.

They were said to have been conveyed in two luxury bus owned by transport companies located in the South-eastern Nigeria.

There weren't any official comments from the Kaduna Zonal Comptroller of Immigration, Suleiman Umar, as he kept reporters waiting for hours without attending to them.

However, a source in his office explained that the command had to obtain clearance from Abuja and liaise with other relevant security agencies, like the State Security Service (SSS), Police and Army before speaking to the press.

"We are yet to ascertain whether they are Gaddafi's fighters but we know they are Nigerians from Libya. They came in through Niger-Nigeria border. As I am talking with you now, another set are at the Kaduna toll gate coming.

"What we want to do now is to keep them in our custody and await directives from government on the way forward. We don't have money; certainly, the state will cater for them until further directives.

"Right now, high level security meeting is going on at the government house and our zonal comptroller has gone there."

One of the victims, who pleaded anonymity, claimed they were wandering in the desert for the past three weeks before they were apprehended by Immigration officials at the Niger-Nigerian border.

"We left Libya about two weeks ago wandering in the desert before our arrest and subsequent conveyance here (Kaduna) from the Niger-Nigeria border," he said.

They have however been taken to Abuja.

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Shell shuts in 25,000 bpd of oil due to sabotage and theft

Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell said Monday it has shut in 25,000 barrels per day of crude in a southern Nigerian oil field due to spills caused by sabotage and theft.

"The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) has shut in production from Imo River Field due to a recent upsurge of illegal bunkering and refining activities which have impacted the environment," the company said in a statement.

"Some 25,000 barrels of oil per day is affected," Shell said, adding it took the action on August 28 "to starve the illegal bunkerers of crude oil in order to prevent further environmental pollution."

Theft of crude is commonly referred to as "bunkering" in Nigeria.

Shell said the field which straddles oil-producing Abia and Rivers states, has five flow stations, a gas compressor station and several kilometres of pipelines among other faculties.

The thefts were first noticed in the field two years ago, prompting government security forces to move in to dislodge the perpetrators and destroyed their barges and canoes.

The military deployed in the oil delta has in recent months reported busting hundreds of illegal refineries.

"But the criminal act has now resumed, with crude thieves inflicting hacksaw cuts on pipelines to siphon crude to waiting barges and canoes, some of which can hold as much as 40,000 barrels," it added.

Pipeline vandalism and associated spills are common in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's oil and gas producing region, to feed a lucrative black market.

Shell, one of Nigeria's major oil operators, has seen frequent shut-ins in recent years.

Last month, it was forced to shut down its Utorogu gas plant following a leak on its trunkline in western Niger Delta.

Activists say oil firms such as Shell have not done enough to prevent such incidents.

A UN report in August said decades of oil pollution in the Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta, located in Rivers state, may require the world's largest ever cleanup.

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, accounting for 2.3 million barrels of crude per day according to the latest report of the International Energy Agency.

AFP

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Foreign Minister says no no Gaddafi men in Nigeria

There is no confirmation that some Muammar Gaddafi loyalists have entered Nigeria from neighbouring countries such as Niger,  Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru has said.

Ashiru told Nigeria reporters covering the 66th UN General Assembly in New York that speculations that Gaddafi’s men had entered some states in Nigeria were untrue.

“Our security agencies are on the alert and I can assure you that anybody who enters Nigeria will be promptly deported from wherever he or she came from,’’ the minister assured.

The minister also said he did not believe Gaddafi or any of his associates would seek asylum in Nigeria.

“I don’t believe that will happen, maybe they will prefer not to come to Nigeria for obvious reasons and I don’t think anyone should express that kind of anxiety,’’  the minister said

Niger, which borders Nigeria in the north, confirmed the presence of some senior Gaddafi officials and at least one member of his family in the country.

Nigerien authorities also confirmed that they were keeping one of Gaddafi’s sons,Saadi, under surveillance along with several others who fled to the country, including Gen. Ali Kana, who commanded Gaddafi’s southern troops.

Interpol has issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, all wanted by the International Criminal Court for suspected crimes against humanity.

About  200 Nigerians still in Libya

Ashiru also told reporters in New York on Saturday that in spite of   the “massive evacuations’’ authorised by the Federal  Government in February and March, some Nigerians still chose  to remain in Libya.

The minister quoted said that  “the last plane that left Libya was virtually empty.”

In March, the National Emergency Management Agency revealed that 4,000 Nigerians were evacuated from Libya.

The minister, however, said he was in touch with some Nigerians still in Libya and had received information that none of them had been killed .

He said the government had contacted Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) authorities on the need to ensure the safety of her nationals that were still in the country.

The minister said the TNC had assured him of their safety, adding that his interaction with them confirmed that “they are fine.’’

“There was particular guy (Nigerian) in Libya who sent an SMS to Nigeria which was also forwarded to me.

“I have been in touch with him several times and each time I call him I will ask him how Nigerians there (in Libya) are doing and he will assure me that they are fine.

“I have also asked to know the problem of some those who were arrested and later released, but no one was killed.

He said the Nigerian government was still assessing the security situation in the North African country.

“We will continue to assess the situation and we want to make sure that everything is stable and secure.

“At the appropriate time when we think the situation has stabilised we will take a decision,’’ he added. (NAN)

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Massive amounts of explosives smuggled from China seized

Nigerian officials seized a sizable amount of explosives hidden inside a shipping container from China at one of the West African nation's major ports, an official said Saturday, amid continued unrest and bombings across the oil-rich country.

The container arrived at Nigeria's Tin Can Port on June 14 on the MV Seng-Shi, with its bill of lading claiming the shipment from Huangpu, China contained industrial sockets and valves, said Wale Adeniyi, a spokesman for the Nigeria Customs Service. However, discrepancies on the shipping paperwork raised suspicions of the customs service, which kept watch over the container to see if someone came to pick it up, Adeniyi said.

Officials opened the container Friday to check its contents, he said, adding that they worried whatever could be inside of the containers could grow unstable during Nigeria's continuing rainy season, he said. Officials remain unsure whether the explosives were of a military or commercial grade.

"We saw them in different dimensions with cables, wires (and) some bolts," Adeniyi said.

The customs service handed the explosives over to Nigeria's federal police force. Authorities have launched an investigation into the shipment, Adeniyi said, though no arrests have been made.

Nigeria's chaotic ports in its megacity of Lagos see tons of cargo move through them daily, providing cars, imported food, refined gasoline and other products needed for the nation of 150 million people. Drugs and other illegal goods also flow through the ports, often aided by officials receiving bribes in a country considered by analysts to have one of the world's most corrupt governments.

It isn't the first time a shipment that could be used as weapons have been found in the country. In October 2010, authorities at Lagos' Apapa Port found a hidden shipment of 107 mm artillery rockets, rifle rounds and other weapons from Iran. The shipment was supposedly bound for Gambia. A Nigerian and an Iranian face criminal charges over the shipment.

The explosives shipment also comes as Nigeria faces an increasingly bloody sectarian challenge from a radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram. The sect, which wants strict implementation of Shariah law across the nation split between Christian and Muslims, claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 suicide car bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria that killed 23 people and wounded 116 others.

AP

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