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Military in Niger Delta
Last year, the Federal Government resolved to deploy more troops to strengthen the Navy for a better policing of the Niger Delta area. This was borne out of a meeting of top security chiefs, chief executives of oil multinationals operating in the zone and top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over growing insecurity and crude oil theft in the area. Over the years, the alarming crude theft and vandalisation of oil facilities, especially pipelines, have been of major concern to the FG. Related to these was the escalating ethnic restiveness that had left many Niger Delta Communities desolate, relentless attacks on oil workers, hostage-taking and rampant banditry. Reports had it that the country lost over six million barrels of crude, worth about N20 billion, to pirates in the first quarter of 2003; while $6.8 million was spent to replace vandalised oil equipment in the year. During the same period, an additional $6.8 million was wasted on violence-induced production deferment. Obviously based on all these, the Federal Government resolved to deploy more troops and to strengthen the Navy for a better policing of the area.
It was no surprise, therefore, when the FG set up the Brigadier-Gen. Elias Zamani-led Joint Military Task Force, code-named Operation Restore Hope. Set up by the FG last July, the Force began operations immediately. Since then, it has noticeably contained the criminal activities of oil thieves, attackers of oil workers, ethnic militias, pipeline vandals, and other common felons.
But the Police seems to be itching to take over from Operation Restore Hope. The Police Affairs Minister, Chief Broderick Bozimo, says the Police may soon be drafted to the Niger Delta, as the prolonged stay of the military in the zone would not augur well for the nation and its democracy. There is no doubt that military occupation is not the best means of maintaining peace under a democratic dispensation, but the Niger Delta crisis is more volatile than what the Police can immediately cope with. For now, the security task of the oil-rich region is too onerous and central to the nation�s revenue earning to be left completely in the hand of an ill-equipped and poorly motivated Police Force.
Though relative peace is gradually returning to the Niger-Delta, it looks too hasty to divest the military from the task of securing law and order in the region. One of the greatest achievements of Operation Restore Hope was the recent smashing of the John Togo-led, 24-man criminal gang which, for four years, allegedly laid siege to the western axis of the Niger Delta and made its waterways a no-go-area for commuters. The gang had been involved in serial robberies, hostage-taking, rape, maiming and killing of innocent citizens, including expatriate oil workers. A similar outfit in Rivers State, named State Internal Security Operation, in collaboration with the state government which is currently prosecuting an illegal arms recovery campaign, has equally recorded some level of success.
The sophistication of the Niger Delta violence far outweighs the capability of the Nigeria Police. Had the Police been capable, the military would not have been invited in the first place. Rather than rush Operation Restore Hope and its sister agencies out of the zone, the FG should support them with enough funds, equipment and logistics to protect the nation�s economic interests and deepen the prevailing fragile peace in the Niger Delta. Nothing should be done to reverse the achievements so far recorded by the military task force.
But while restoring law and order, there is an urgent need to address the political and development issues involved in the Niger Delta crisis. This will involve creating new Local Governments and wards to separate warring ethnic groups, opening up the riverine communities and providing job opportunities for idle youths, who are the ready tools used to perpetrate mayhem in the region. Justice through gradual return to true fiscal federalism is, however, the surest path to lasting peace in the Delta Region.
The Punch, Friday July 30, 2004
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