Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Two oil wells operated by Nigeria's Eroton on fire

Two oil wells operated by Nigerian firm Eroton Exploration and Production Limited caught fire on Monday and were still burning on Tuesday after the company hired a contractor to try extinguish the fire, the agency responsible for detecting oil spills said.

It was not immediately clear if this was the same area where a well operated by Eroton spilled oil and gas into the Niger Delta for more than a week in June.

Eroton produces and exports crude from its Oil Mining Lease 18 block through the Nembe Creek Trunkline.

The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said the fire broke out at two wells in Rivers state, in the Niger Delta. A boat suspected to have been engaging in theft of crude oil was burnt to ashes at the site.

"The company has mobilised a vendor, which is expected to arrive at the incident location today, October 4, 2022 to extinguish the raging fire from the wells, the agency will supervise the activity accordingly," Idris Musa, head of NOSDRA said in a statement.

Oil spills are common in the oil producing Niger Delta where crude production has been hobbled by theft and vandalism of pipelines, hitting Nigeria's export earnings. 

By Tife Owolabi

Reuters

Related stories: Nigeria squanders oil price bonanza as gasoline subsidies soar

Nigeria has the highest incidents of oil spills in the world

 

Nigerian child killed in 'bullet-proof' charm test

A Nigerian boy has been killed by his brother while testing a newly bought "bullet-proof" charm, police say.

The two believed they had "fortified themselves with the protective charm", according to police in Kwara state

Abubakar Abubakar then shot at his younger brother Yusuf, 12, using their father's rifle, officers say. Police are now looking for the alleged killer.

Despite a lack of evidence, charms are used by some in Nigeria who want protection against bad luck.

There have been several reports of people being killed after testing "bullet-proof" charms and medicines.

It is not clear why the two brothers went to get protection.

Yusuf Abubakar is said to have died on the spot after the shooting while his older brother escaped into the bushes, police say.

The two brothers were the sons of a hunter.

Police have urged parents "to monitor the activities of their children and avoid doing certain unsavoury activities".

BBC


Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Nigeria to award flared gas contracts by end of 2022

Nigeria will award contracts for its flared gas by the end of December under an accelerated programme to harness gas that is released as a byproduct of oil production, its petroleum regulator has said.

President Muhammadu Buhari first launched the programme to auction rights to capture and sell flared gas in 2016. Four years later, the government approved 200 bidders but the process was stalled due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission chief executive Gbenga Komolafe said the auction was being restarted and would be open to previous applicants and new bidders.

“The auction process has been streamlined to enable an accelerated delivery schedule for this exercise with the announcement of winners planned for December 2022,” Komolafe said in a statement.

The government has said flaring costs it roughly $1bn a year in lost revenue. The gas can be used in power plants, in industry or exported.

Last month, Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva said Nigeria’s plan to commercialise gas burned from its oilfields was at an advanced stage and would help cut 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

Nigeria, which has Africa’s largest gas reserves of more than 190 trillion cubic feet, first targeted gas flaring in the late 1970s and, through various schemes and regulations, has more than halved it since 2001. 

By Camillus Eboh

Reuters





Ten years from the lynching that shocked Nigeria

Jane Toku sheds no tears as she recalls the moment when she saw the smouldering remains of her son's corpse on the morning he and three of his friends were lynched 10 years ago.



The four students had run into a local vigilante group at dawn in Aluu, a community behind the University of Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria's oil capital.


There had been a spate of robberies in the area and at that time of the morning, people became suspicions. Accused of being petty thieves, the four - Llody Toku, Ugonna Obuzor, Chiadika Biringa and Tekena Elkanah - were given a mock trial and found guilty.


Their punishment was handed out immediately: they were stripped, marched around the community, brutally beaten and set alight by the mob as thousands watched and filmed.


"When I arrived, I forced my way through the crowd and knelt before my son's corpse.


"His friend Tekena was barely breathing, I watched his chest heave with his last breaths," Mrs Toku said.


Such mob killings are not uncommon in Nigeria but this was the first to go viral on social media, causing widespread outrage, protests and debates about the country's judicial system, and questions about a society where people resort to such levels of violence.


"One is tired and sick of coming here to lament after these dastardly acts," a lawmaker said at the time when the incident was discussed at the National Assembly.


"It is important for 'jungle justice' to be stopped - it is bad," said radio host Yaw, as celebrities condemned the incident.


But despite the shock and anger over the killing of the students, now known as the Aluu Four, and the sentencing of three men including one police officer, for their roles in the lynching, mob attacks continue to happen in Nigeria.


There have been 391 mob killings in Nigeria since 2019, according to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based think-tank, with at least five this year alone.


That begs the question why the outrage over the killing of the Aluu Four didn't lead to a national reckoning over lynchings.


"The failure of the criminal justice system is one very important reason for this," said Dr Agwanwo Destiny, a criminologist at the sociology department of the University of Port Harcourt.


He pointed to instances where criminal suspects handed over to the police were released without investigation and ended up seeking revenge on those who had given them up.


"Such incidents erode trust in the judicial system, so when people are alleged to have committed a crime, people are quick to pass judgement and vent their frustrations," Dr Destiny said.


It is an argument also made by activist Annkio Briggs, who led demonstrations in Port Harcourt to demand justice for the students and their families, because she "couldn't trust the system to do what was right," she told the BBC.


Perpetrators of mob killings in Nigeria are rarely arrested and prosecuted.


Two suspects arrested in May after the lynching of a Christian student on allegations of blasphemy in Sokoto have still not been brought to trial, while the police said the main culprits are still at large.


It was one of four reported cases of mob killing in that month alone:


.Two men were burnt to death by a mob in the Ijesha area of Lagos over alleged theft of mobile phones
 

.One man was murdered in Lugbe, Abuja on allegations of blasphemy


.Commercial motorcyclists lynched a sound engineer identified as David Imoh in the Lekki area of Lagos.


Suspects have been charged in all cases, the police said. But it might be years before there are any verdicts because of the slow pace of justice in Nigeria.


Two years ago, Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, the ICPC, said the judiciary was the most corrupt arm of government in the country. It said that more than nine billion naira ($21m; £19m) was offered and paid as bribes in the sector.


Such reports indicating that justice is for sale to the highest bidder erode trust in the system, said Dr Destiny.


It has never been determined what the four students were doing when they were stopped by the vigilante group in Aluu.


One version said they were thieves, another said they were members of a violent gang but neither allegation was proved in court.

"He was not a perfect child but he was humble and he was our confidant.


"He was close to us because we had our second child 11 years after him," Mrs Toku said of her son.


The four students, best friends, were in their late teens and early 20s and came from middle-class homes.


Ugonna, 18, and his friend Lloyd, 19 - known as Tipsy and Big L - were budding musicians in Port Harcourt's rap scene.


One of their three unreleased songs Love In The City could almost be a prophesy of what befell them.


Growing up in the city like PH where Ra was made to sing right


We embrace the street life cos


There's no love in the heart of the city


How can the seeds grow when the garden is weary


It used to be very cool but the oil crude brought violence



"There can be no justification, no reason why anybody should die like that," said their friend Gloria During, who lived in the same Hilton hostel in Aluu as both musicians.


Aluu is popular for its private apartments that are rented by students who can't find accommodation at the university's insufficient hostels.


At the time it was a small village with many undeveloped plots and a population that were mostly farmers.


Today, Port Harcourt's sprawling metropolis has caught up with the fringes of Aluu - most of the land has been built on by Pentecostal churches and more hostels have sprung up.


But in the centre of the community remains two barren plots, the playground where the students were first held and death pronounced on them, and the burrow-pit, several hundred yards away, where they were marched to, beaten and killed.


Despite the nationwide shock when the incident happened, time has allowed most of Nigeria to move on.


But for a mother, time is a keen reminder of the loss of a beloved first son with a bright future ahead of him.


"He had a bright career in music, he would have gone far by now," Mrs Toku said.

By Nduka Orjinmo

BBC 

Related stories: Arrests made in student killings

University of Port Harcourt shuts down as student protest killings

Nigeria Agrees to End Military Detention of Children

In 2019, a colleague and I interviewed dozens of children in northeast Nigeria who had been detained in horrific conditions in a military prison for alleged association with the armed group Boko Haram. The children described beatings, overwhelming heat, frequent hunger, and being packed tightly in cells with hundreds of other detainees “like razorblades in a pack.” Most were never charged and held for months or years with no outside contact.

Since 2013, at least 4,000 children have been detained in Nigeria. Many were abducted against their will or apprehended when fleeing Boko Haram attacks. Some were only five years old.

Our report, published in late 2019, helped prompt the release of 333 children from prison, but authorities refused to allow the United Nations access to the prison or to enter an agreement to ensure children were not military detained and were provided immediate reintegration assistance.

Last week, the Nigerian government finally signed a “handover protocol” with the UN agreeing that children taken into military custody on suspicion of involvement with Boko Haram should be transferred within seven days to civilian authorities for reintegration. This is an important milestone that will help prevent the military detention of children and ensure they receive needed support.

Nigeria is not the only country where children have been detained for alleged involvement with armed groups. Last year the UN reported that 2,864 children were detained for suspected association with armed groups in 16 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, and Syria.

Handover protocols are practical measures to ensure that instead of prison, children affected by conflict can be reintegrated into their communities. In Mali, for example, dozens of children have been transferred from military to civilian authorities for reintegration thanks to a handover protocol signed in 2013. Chad, Niger, and Burkina Faso have also signed protocols.

Children affected by conflict need rehabilitation and schooling, not prison. Nigeria’s new agreement should help children get the support they need. Other governments should follow its example.

By Jo Becker

Human Rights Watch