Security Experts from Britain, U.S, and Nigeria Meet Today

The Niger Delta oil fields, a major point of conflict in Africa

Top American intelligence and military officers as well as their British counterparts will, today, in Abuja, engage top Nigerian security chiefs under the Gulf of Guinea Energy Security Strategy (GGESS) to explore fresh initiatives towards ending militancy in the Niger Delta region, in particular, and a secured business environment in the entire Gulf of Guinea.

GGESS was initiated by the Federal Government in 2005 as a collaborative effort with key foreign governments to find a lasting solution to the security of oil and gas supply from the Niger Delta. It is also to promote sustainable development of the region in a climate of peace.

If successfully implemented, the GGESS initiative is expected to be replicated in other countries in the sub-region. The strategy seeks to build strong partnerships between the Nigerian Government and foreign governments interesteds in the co-ordinated effort to stamp out oil theft, illegal small arms dealings and money laundering with particular emphasis on the Niger Delta.

At inception, the US Government collaborated with Nigeria in establishing the GGESS. The United Kingdom which initially attended meetings as an observer eventually joined the group as a full member. Nigerian representation to the GGESS is drawn from the NNPC, the Nigerian military and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The GGESS has four work groups to facilitate the achievement of set objective: the Small Arms Control, Maritime Security, Money Laundering and Sustainable Development.

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Another sign of attempts to improve stability and security in Nigeria, this article shows that some officials are trying to battle the seemingly endless flow of corruption and violence. Although this step forward will be met with almost as much movement backwards, hopefully the overall trend in Nigeria is progressive.

Nigeria 'Denies Access to Rebel'

Militant attacks have hit Nigeria's oil outputThe Nigerian government is preventing lawyers from seeing a detained oil militant leader, a rebel group says. Lawyers acting for Henry Okah have asked a judge to try again to compel the government to bring him to court.

Mr Okah and a colleague Edward Atatah were arrested in Angola in September and deported back to Nigeria in February, charged with gun-running.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it was afraid for Mr Okah's safety.

The group previously said he had been killed - claims denied by the government.

"The Nigerian government has blatantly refused to comply with a High Court order granting the lawyers and families of Henry Okah and Edward Atatah immediate access to see him," Mend said in a statement e-mailed to journalists.

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The Nigerian government is failing to comply with their own laws. They are denying an alleged gun runner access to a lawyer, or access to anyone for that matter. There were rumors that Mr. Okah has already died, but the government denies these claims. Mr. Okah is an important member of the group that seeks independence of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is an oil-rich region that has been the site of many problems recently with oil pipelines breaking and citizens stealing the oil. The government's incompliance makes it seem possible that Mr. Okah is indeed dead, or that he is a threat in some way to the stablility of the government. It would be in the Nigerian government's best interest to allow access to Mr. Okah in order to falsify all claims that he is dead.

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Nigeria: Poor Oil Spill Clean-Up Methods Affect Niger Delta Community

A few days after villagers in Kedere in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region noticed oil seeping from the pipe that runs beside the village, a few boys from the village went out with shovels, dug pits a few feet deep, scooped the oil into the ground and burned it, finally covering it with sand. "During the dry season, it looks nice," Anyakwee Nsirimovu, director of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Port Harcourt, told IRIN, describing the simple process which he said is a common spill clean-up tactic in the region.


The environmental damage caused by such poor clean-up methods could be disastrous, Emmanuel Emmanuel, an environmental scientist in Port Harcourt,
said. "Oil does not burn at 800 degrees Celsius," he explained, "so when you burn it, you just flare off the volatiles and gas. The dense crude remains... One drop of rain and you see the black spots," he said.


Across Kedere and similar villages in the region, evidence of the damage is readily apparent in the oil sheen on the soil and water.


"The land is devastated. The drinking water and streams are polluted. As it rains, we use the rain water but cannot drink it, because even that is full of crude oil," youth leader Amstel Monday Ebarakpor told IRIN. "At every groundwater intrusion, you see seepage. Sometimes you can see oil sheen on drinking water," he told IRIN. "Crude will be there for the next 50 years."


On 25 January the chairman of the government's National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, Bamidele Ajakaiye, told Nigeria's Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology that there are 1,150 abandoned oil spill sites in the Niger Delta region. Many, communities say, are cleaned like the one in Kedere - if at all.

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Oil spills threaten the ground water in Nigeria. Oil spills are likely due to old, worn-out oil pipelines that rupture often. Ineffective oil spill clean-up methods have led to the contamination of bodies of water. The oil will likely remain in the water supply for about 50 years. Nigerian officials are not sure of their plan of action yet, but something must be done soon before the Nigerian citizens consume toxic amounts of oil from their drinking water.


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