Militants attack major Chevron oil facility in Nigeria

Armed militants attacked a major Chevron oil and gas facility off Nigeria’s southern coast, the military said Friday, and the U.S.-based multinational said it was forced to shut production there but its exports will continue.

A new group called the Niger Delta Avengers said it bombed Chevron’s Okan platform on Wednesday and warned international companies that “the Nigerian military can’t protect your facilities.”

“This is what we promised the Nigeria government. Since they have refused to listen to us, we are going to bring the country’s economy to zero,” a statement said, threatening more attacks including in Abuja, the capital, and Lagos, the commercial centre.

Security forces launched an offensive this year after militants renewed attacks that forced the closure of two oil refineries and a major export terminal. President Muhammadu Buhari last week ordered military chiefs to the region and vowed to treat “vandals and saboteurs” as terrorists. The military has denied reports of extrajudicial killings but more than 10,000 civilians have fled the fallout.

Nigerian Navy spokesman Commodore Chris Ezekobe said Friday that the attack occurred Wednesday near Escravos terminal in the southern Niger Delta. He refused to comment on reports from witnesses that a security guard was killed in the attack. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Chevron spokesman Deji Haastrup said the facility was shut down but would not say how much oil production is affected. “It will not affect our commitment to export crude,” he said.

The militants want a greater share of oil profits for communities whose fishing and agricultural grounds have been ravaged by oil pollution. They also object to the government winding down a 2009 amnesty program paying 30,000 former militants. The amnesty ended attacks that cut Nigerian oil production by 40 per cent.

Chevron is the third-largest exporter in Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest oil producer.

680 News

President Buhari wants the rest of the world to quickly return Nigeria's stolen loot

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is demanding greater international cooperation in returning hundreds of millions of dollars in Nigerian funds hidden abroad.

Buhari was elected in March 2015 on an anti-corruption ticket and has pledged to reclaim billions of dollars allegedly lost to dodgy dealings and mismanagement. The West African oil giant has endured decades of endemic corruption, with state funds being secreted abroad by public figures including ex-military ruler Sani Abacha. The late general, who led Nigeria between 1993 and his death in 1998, is suspected of looting up to $5 billion in public funds during his reign. Switzerland recently agreed to return $321 million Abacha had hidden there, though the former ruler may have stored up to $2.2 billion in European bank accounts.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also pledged in March that authorities would trace stolen Nigerian funds circulating in the U.S. financial system, which Kerry said could total “billions of dollars.” Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in January that the country had lost 1.34 trillion naira ($6.8 billion) in stolen public funds between 2006 and 2013.

Nigerians are “becoming impatient” with the process of repatriating stolen public funds, which has “become tedious,” Buhari said on Thursday at a meeting in Abuja with the executive secretary of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov. “We are looking for more cooperation from the EU, United States, other countries and international institutions to recover the nation’s stolen assets,” said the Nigerian president, specifically mentioning the stolen proceeds from the sale of crude oil. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and the sector accounts for more than 90 percent of the value of the country’s exports.

In response, Fedotov said that the UNODC would give Nigeria its support and cooperation in fighting corruption.

As well as the efforts to recoup funds from abroad, the Buhari administration has ordered the country’s anti-corruption agency to investigate scores of retired and serving military officials over alleged arms procurement fraud and has culled thousands of ghost workers from the Nigerian civil service.

A number of high-profile public figures from the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan have been put on trial, including ex-national security adviser Sambo Dasuki, who is accused of orchestrating the theft of $2 billion in government funds earmarked for fighting Boko Haram. Dasuki denies the charges against him. The opposition People’s Democratic Party has accused Buhari’s government of undertaking a witch hunt against its members.

Newsweek

U.S. to sell Nigeria attack aircraft to combat Boko Haram

The U.S. administration is seeking to approve a sale of as many as 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria to aid its battle against the extremist group Boko Haram, U.S. officials say, in a vote of confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari's drive to reform the country's corruption-tainted military.

Washington also is dedicating more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to the campaign against the Islamist militants in the region and plans to provide additional training to Nigerian infantry forces, the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's plans.

The possible sale -- which the officials said was favored within the U.S. administration but is subject to review by Congress -- underscores the deepening U.S. involvement in helping governments in north and west Africa fight extremist groups.

U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Michael Franken, a deputy commander of the Pentagon's Africa Command, told a Washington forum last week that there now are 6,200 U.S. troops - most of them Special Operations Forces - operating from 26 locations on the continent.

The widening U.S. military cooperation is a political victory for Buhari, who took office last year pledging to crack down on the rampant corruption that has undermined the armed forces in Africa's most populous country.

"The Buhari administration I think has really reenergized the bilateral relationship in a fundamental way," one U.S. official said.

The previous Nigerian government of Goodluck Jonathan had scorned the United States for blocking arms sales partly because of human rights concerns. It also criticized Washington for failing to speed the sharing of intelligence.

The souring relations hit a low at the end of 2014 when U.S. military training of Nigerian forces was abruptly halted.

That is changing under Buhari, whose crackdown on corruption has led to a raft of charges against top national security officials in the previous government.

"Buhari made clear from the get-go that his number one priority was reforming the military to defeat Boko Haram ... And he sees us as part of that solution," a second U.S. official said.

Reuters

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