ECOWAS fines Nigeria $3.3m over extra-judicial killings

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, court has imposed a fine of $3.3 million on Nigeria over the extra-judicial killing of eight citizens in the Apo District of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory.

The regional court ordered the country to pay compensatory damages of $200,000 to each of the family of the deceased killed and $150,000 to each of the injured by a combined team of soldiers and operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, during a raid of an uncompleted building at Apo Area of Abuja.

The eight Nigerians killed when the security personnel opened fire on them were later found to be commercial motorcycle (Okada) riders who were taking refuge in the uncompleted building as a result of skyrocketing cost of house rent in the capital city. 

Those killed are Nura Abdullahi, Ashiru Musa, Abdullahi Manmman, Buhari Ibrahim, Suleiman Ibrahim, Ahmadu Musa, Nasir Adamu and Musa Yobe, while the 11 injured include Muttaka Abubakar, Sani Abdulrahman, Nuhu Ibrahim, Ibrahim Mohammed, Ibrahim Aliyu, Yahaya Bello, Abubakar Auwal, Yusuf Abubakar, Ibrahim Bala, Murtala Salihu and Sanni Usman. 

A Non-Governmental Organization, NGO, The Incorporated Trustees of Fiscal and Civil Right Enlightment Foundation, had on behalf of the deceased, dragged Nigeria, the Army and Department of State Service, before regional court to challenge the legality of the killing of the eight commercial motorcyclists and the injuring of others when the securitymen invaded their apartment. 

In the judgment of ECOWAS Court delivered by presiding Justice, FridayChijioke Nwoke, Nigeria was found liable of brutal killing of defenseless citizens, contrary to the provision of local and international law on the fundamental rights of citizens to life. The panel of three justices, headed by Justice Nwoke, condemned the killing as barbaric, illegal and unconstitutional and a breach of the fundamental rights of the deceased to life.

Vanguard

Niger Delta Avengers don't want to negotiate with government

A militant group in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region says it will not negotiate with the government and has continued to blow up oil pipelines.

Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Monday that the government was ready to begin a dialogue with stakeholders in the Niger Delta, a region which suffered an insurgency during the mid-2000s by militants who claimed that the country’s oil wealth was not being fairly distributed. “I want to call on the militants to sheath their weapons and embrace dialogue with the government,” said Kachikwu, who also indicated that the Nigerian military would suspend its operations in the Niger Delta.

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which has carried out a spate of attacks on oil infrastructure since February, announced early on Wednesday that it was not involved in any negotiations. “We’re not negotiating with any committee. If [the federal government] is discussing with any group they’re doing that on their own,” said the group via its Twitter feed.

The group continued its campaign of attacking oil pipelines, claiming to have blown up an oil platform run by U.S. company Chevron early on Wednesday in Warri, Delta state, southern Nigeria. The attack was confirmed to Reuters by a local community chief, although Chevron declined to comment.

A senior officer in the Nigerian Army confirmed on Wednesday that it was observing a two-week ceasefire in the Niger Delta, though warned that military operations could resume if the militants did not respond to requests for dialogue. “The two-week ceasefire was such that all military operations in the region were supposed to stop to enable government to apply the non-kinetic means of reaching out to the militants,” said Ibrahim Attahiru, a major-general in the Nigerian Army, according to Nigeria’s Premium Times. “Now the militants have resorted to continue with the attacks on pipelines, we will tarry for a while and if this does not stop, we will decisively act wherever it is necessary.”

The NDA launched its first attack in February, blowing up an underwater pipeline at the Forcados terminal operated by Shell. The group appears to have links with the pro-Biafran movement, which is campaigning for the secession of Biafra in southeast Nigeria. Biafra existed as an independent republic between 1967 and 1970 before being reintegrated into Nigeria. The NDA has also disavowed links with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group that led the mid-2000s insurgency in the Niger Delta. The insurgency only came to an end following the introduction of a presidential amnesty program in 2009.

Nigeria’s oil output has dropped from 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) at the start of 2016 to between 1.5 million and 1.6 million bpd, Kachikwu said. Nigeria’s economy is heavily dependent on the oil and gas sector and the country has now fallen behind Angola as Africa’s biggest oil producer.

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Nigeria to scale down military offensive in the Niger Delta

Nigeria will scale down a military campaign in the oil-producing Niger Delta and talk to the Niger Delta Avengers militant group which has claimed a string of attacks there that sharply cut crude output, officials said.

But the militant group said in a statement, without mentioning the government initiative, its mandate was "to liberate the Niger Delta people."

The government has also decided that the military presence in the region, which had been increased in the last few weeks, should be scaled down, a statement issued by the vice president's office said on Tuesday.

The southern Delta swamps, where many complain of poverty and oil spills, have been hit by militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low, and helped push oil prices to 2016 highs on Tuesday. [O/R]

President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed a team led by the national security adviser "to begin the process of a very intensive dialogue with those caught in the middle of this," Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said late on Monday.

"I want to call on the militants to sheath their weapons and embrace dialogue with government," he said. "We are making contacts with everybody who is involved, the ones that we can identify, through them, the ones that we can't identify so that there is a lot more inclusiveness in this dialogue."

"Probably we will suspend the operations of the military in the region for a week or two for individuals in the creeks to converge for the dialogue," he said.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who had been expected to travel to London to meet investors on Tuesday, instead met Niger Delta state governors and military chiefs to discuss ways to end the militancy.

A statement from Osinbajo's office said it had been decided at the meeting that the military presence in the region should be "de-escalated," although forces would be kept to provide security for the talks.

Adding to the problems of authorities trying to stem the violence, a group in the southeast calling for secession declared support for the Avengers.

"We support the Niger Delta Avengers," said Uche Madu, a spokesman for the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) which wants secession for the region which fought a civil war from 1967-70.

A former militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which laid down arms in 2009 under a government amnesty, accused the army of a "disproportionate use of force."

MEND, which was one of the largest militant groups, also said the Delta Avengers had attracted some of its former fighters. So far it has been unclear who is behind the Avengers.

There was no immediate direct response from the Avengers on the dialogue initiative. On its Twitter account it only issued a statement framing MEND leaders as criminals.

"Our struggle is focused on the liberation of the People of Niger Delta from decades of divisive rule and exclusion," it said.

Kachikwu also said Nigeria's oil output was between 1.5 million and 1.6 million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million barrels at the start of the year.

"Over the last two months, we have probably lost about 600,000 barrels from various attacks of militants in the area," he said.

Reuters

Related story: Nigeria's new militants - The Niger Delta Avengers