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"Live Patiently in the world; know that those who hate you
 are more numerous than those who love you" {african proverb}
----- Original Message -----
From: <Agbere@aol.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list SHELL-NIGERIA-ACTION
<shell-nigeria-action@essential.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 1999 11:47 AM
Subject: ERA FIELD REPORT # 22 : CARNAGE AT IKEBIRI


>
> ERA FIELD REPORT # 22
>
> SUBJECT: CARNAGE AT IKEBIRI
>
> DESPATCHLINE: IKEBIRI, Southern Ijaw LGA of Bayelsa State.
>
> FROM: FELIX TUODOLO (IKEBIRI)
> DATE: APRIL 20, 1999
>
>
>
> HIGHLIGHTS
>
>
> - Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) uses the military to forcefully reopen
> closed oil wells.
> - The same military team returns and shoots everyone at sight.
> - At least eight persons killed.
> - 2 year old baby also killed.
> - Over fifteen persons still missing.
> -"Lucky" chiefs arrested and detained in Port Harcourt.
> - The burying of the dead continues.
>
> "It is sad that this is happening even when General Abacha is dead"
>
> Apostle Cornelius Ayibebi Sabi, spokesman, Ikebiri 1, Ikebiri is in
> Southern Ijaw LGA of Bayelsa State.
>
> A SORROWFUL SCENE
>
> Ikebiri is about 2 hours drive by speedboat from Yenagoa, the capital city
> of Bayelsa State.
>
>
> It was all weeping at different doorsteps and community halls of Ikebiri 1
> and Ikebiri 2 on Tuesday the 20th day of April 1999. Women and children
> sought solace in each other's arms sobbing or crying. The Italian oil
mogul
> AGIP was source of their sorrow. The previous day being Monday 19/4/99, a
> combined team of navy and army sent by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company
(NAOC)
> had shot and killed at least eight local people of Ikebiri while over
> fifteen persons were still missing.
>
>
> To further compound their grief, two of the traditional rulers were
arrested
> and taken along with two of the corpses to unknown destinations. At
Ikebiri,
> the only means of communication with the outside world consists of 2 (two)
> speedboats donated by NAOC to the communities recently. These were taken
> away by the military team. So, while the people could only cry over their
> dead ones, missing ones and wounded ones. They had no means of conveying
the
> wounded to a hospital for treatment. They have no means of making the
world
> know of their plight. They are a people marooned in the backwaters of the
> Nigerian nation state.
>
> How did it all start?
>
> AGIP and the IKEBIRI COMMUNITIES
>
>
> Agip started operations in Ikebiri in 1969. Then the people had thought
that
> a messiah has come. This is because Ikebiri is located far away from any
> modern city. A good speedboat needs a minimum of four hours to reach here.
> >From the capital city of Bayelsa State, it is two hours away.
>
>
> The communities lacked several basic facilities such as hospitals, roads,
> school buildings, electricity, pipe-borne water, postal agencies,
> employment, scholarship etc.
>
> Indeed, Agip did not "disappoint" them. By 1995, twenty-six years after
Agip
> started operations, it had built a six-classroom block for the secondary
> school, a health center and dug a water borehole. All these facilities
were
> either substandard or haphazardly constructed, claims the spokesman of
> Ikebiri 1
> community, Apostle C.A. Sabi.
>
> According to him "Agip claims to have built a health center but there is
no
> facility, no drug nor personnel to run the place. Till today Agip has not
> commissioned the health center and the building is rusting away. The
> six-classroom block Agip built is worse than what a child playing with
clay
> could have built. As for pipe-borne water, they dug a bore hole which has
> not been tested till today, so there is no water, no electricity."
>
>
> SPILLING WITHOUT REMEDY
>
>
> Apart from providing the above services, Agip went ahead to provide the
> community with environmental degradation via constant oil spillage. Among
> the instance of spillage, that of 1992 appears to be the most devastating
as
> part of the Ikebiri forest was destroyed by fire. The most recent oil
> spillage is that of 12/1/99 at the Kala-toru Bolu area of Tebidaba.
>
>
> The interesting aspect of all the spillage incidences is that Agip
adjudged
> them as having been caused by sabotage. As a result, relief materials were
> not sent to the communities neither were they paid any form of
compensation.
> Even when Agip pays compensation for oil spillage, it does so only to the
> neighbors of Ikebiri and never to Ikebiri that was also affected. As a
> result the Ikebiri communities confronted Agip with several petitions
asking
> for justice. They requested for dialogue with the company on several
> occasions, but were rebuffed.
>
>
> Hence there has been several shutdowns of the oil wells and pipelines at
> Ikebiri. These shutdowns have, as expected, always affected Agip's oil
> production. This has a direct bearing on the present atrocious acts of
Agip
> and her military shields.
>
>
> BUILDING UP TO THE CARNAGE
>
>
> On Friday 16/4/99, one Lt. Cdr. Adaji, Officer-in-Charge of internal
> security at Agip Brass Terminal, visited Ikebiri 1 community to deliver
Agip
> scholarship forms to the community. Before departing, he warned the youths
> to stop tampering with Agip facilities and that if they did his team of
army
> and naval personnel would teach them a lesson. In the early hours of
> Saturday 17/4/99, the youths shut down Agip wells located in Ikebiri. The
> wells included Tebidaba well nos., 1,3,7,9,10,11.
>
> The valves on the pipelines were also locked. This action, according to
Mr.
> College Menren (vice president of Ikebiri youths) was to protest the
> injustice being meted on them by Agip and Agip's refusal to pay
compensation
> for the oil spills. Agip ignored their protest. Instead Agip sent down
three
> boats loaded with men of the Internal Security Task Force from their Brass
> terminal to Ikebiri on Sunday 18/4/99 and forcefully re-opened the shut
> valves and wells. After accomplishing their task, the military men left.
>
>
> But the youths returned that evening and re-shut the oil wells and
pipeline
> manifold.
>
> Before this time, there was leadership tussle in Ikebiri 2 that resulted
in
> two factions existing in the town. Agip had on 26/3/99 donated a speedboat
> to Ikebiri 2 community (one had been earlier given to Ikebiri 1) The
> leadership tussle was over which faction was to control this new boat.
> Tension and tempers rose on both sides. The police intervened through the
> Area command at Yenagoa. An order was issued to the effect that the
paramount
> ruler of Ikebiri Kingdom, HRH Chief Samuel Menren should report at Yenagoa
> with the two chiefs of Ikebiri communities, (Chief Okon T. Esule and Chief
> Samuel Fiubotie) and the Ikebiri 2 boat on Monday 19/4/99 for settlement.
>
>
> THE CARNAGE
>
> Building upon the shaky relations and apparent disunity in the community
> (fueled by Agip), the oil mogul with a known track record of human rights
> violations visited the community with mayhem. When the smoke of assault on
> the people cleared the community was thrown into mourning. Their tears are
> yet to dry. At least eight persons including a 2 years old baby were
killed
> and over fifteen persons are still missing.
>
>
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO
>
>     a.. Send a letter of protest to an AGIP office nearest to you.
>     a.. Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited, Engineering Close
>     Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
>     Tel: 2600100/9; 2621613
>     (office of Felix Aig Imoukhuede, in charge of media affairs, Nigerian
>     Agip Oil)
>     b.. Join the campaign against oil companies working behind military
> shields and against their host communities.
>
>     c.. Keep a critical eye on the activities of oil companies in your
> community, district or country
>
>
> For more information our offices or
>
> E-mail us at any of these addresses
>
> eraction@infoweb.abs.net
>
> oilwatch@infoweb.abs.net
>
> disera@infoweb.abs.net
>
> obinze@aol.com
>
> njaja@compuserve.com
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION [FRIENDS OF THE EARTH NIGERIA]
> #214 Uselu Lagos Road, Benin City, Nigeria
> Tel/Fax  + 234 52 600 165  <eraction@infoweb.abs.net>
>
> "All people shall have the right to (a) safe and generally satisfactory
> environment favorable to their development."
> (Article 24, African Charter of Human and People's Rights)
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> Paul Ekadi, President - Baltimore
> Ijaw National Congress USA (INCUSA)
> Office: 147-37 Union Turnpike, Suite 131, Flushing, NY 11367
> Tel. 410 6022720
> Fax 410 6023046
> E-mail: incusa@aol.com
> http://www.nigerianext.com/ijaw.html
> <A
>
HREF="http://www.africaservice.com/incusa.html">http://www.africaservice.com
/i
> ncusa.html
> </A>
>
> <<<<The Ijaws are a nation of more than twelve million people in the Niger
> Delta region of Nigeria. Since the discovery of crude oil in commercial
> quantity in Oloibiri (Ijawland) in 1958, oil companies such as Shell,
AGIP,
> and Chevron have colluded with the military and successive governments of
> Nigeria to wage a war of economic
> exploitation, environmental degradation, and the institution of internal
> colonialism.
>
> The Ijaw National Congress is involved in the struggle to achieve cultural
> change and free the people of the Niger Delta, and the Ijaws in particular
> from decades of environmental pollution, political oppression, unjust and
the
> archaic socio-economic structure. >>>>
>