Nigeria peace deal splits militants
More
militants in Nigeria’s troubled Niger Delta region are accepting the
olive branch from the country’s President Yar Adua who has offered a
general amnesty as part of a major peace deal to push up
developments in the area.
Nigeria is working to earn peace in its troubled oil fields even as
China achieved a major entry into the country’s oil sector. China's
largest petroleum refiner, Sinopec International Petroleum
Corporation, has acquired stakes in Addax Petroleum Corporation for
$7.24 billion. Addax Petroleum is a Canadian company with major
presence in Nigeria.
But many more are warning that the amnesty is a ploy to weaken the
area’s armed resistance and militant leaders emasculated. The Joint
Revolutionary Council (JRC) rejected the amnesty deal. However, some
notable commanders of the JRC have already have accepted the peace
deal.
Militants attacked an oil installation hours after President
Yar'Adua's announced the offer of amnesty in Abuja, the country’s
administrative capital. Militants from the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) which claimed the attack said
it was responding to an army raid on a village in the oil region.
MEND said it had blown up a well-head in the Afremo field owned by
Royal Dutch Shell in Delta State.
MEND said it was suspicious of government’s offer and alleged that
the military “mission was to seek the homes of perceived militants
and raze them to the ground ahead of any amnesty.”
However, Abuja is in secret talks with major militant leaders,
Baobab Africa magazine learnt at the weekend as government continues
behind-the-scene moves to woo over the region’s influential leaders
and get the oil industry running undisturbed.
In Rivers State, militant leader, Mr. Solomon Ndigbara, nicknamed
Osama Bin Laden, led other militant leaders to accept the peace
amnesty offer and advised government to “do whatever it has said it
will do and we will keep to our own side of the bargain.”
Frequent attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta have
contributed to the jumpy price of crude oil in the international
market. Nigeria is one of the globe’s major producer and a major
supplier to the United States. In spite of the peace deal, oil
prices rose back above $70 in New York the same day the Nigerian
government announce the amnesty offer.
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