Anxiety over rising insecurity in the country spiked on Wednesday, 17 January, as Niger Delta militants threatened to resume attacks, two foreigners got kidnapped in Kaduna, suicide bombers killed 12 in Maiduguri and Fulani herdsmen killed another four Nigerians in Benue all within 24 hours.
The dreaded Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group in the Niger Delta that was responsible attacks on oil assets in the country in 2016 that almost crippled oil operations in the country, on Wednesday threatened to attack off-shore oil facilities within days, raising fears of a turn to the dark days when Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped by almost a million barrels a day.
The Niger Delta Avengers – the fighters behind many of the 2016 attacks – said they had planned the assaults after giving up on talks to give the Niger Delta a greater share of the oil revenue it produced.
“This round of attacks will be the most deadly and will be targeting the deep sea operations of the multinationals,” the group said in a statement in its website.
It said its targets, in the seas off the swampland delta region, would include the Bonga Platform and the Agbami, EA and Akpo fields. The militants also said they would target the Nigerian oil company Brittania-U.
The militants had agreed to a ceasefire in August 2016 – a development that helped pull Nigeria back out of recession in the second quarter of last year. But they called off the truce in November.
Any resumption of attacks would pile pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari who is also facing separatist groups in the southeast, Islamist militants in the northeast and elections in 2019. He has not said whether he will stand.
The militant group said talks “have not achieved any meaningful results”.
“While promising a brutal outpour of our wrath, which shall shake the coffers of the failed Nigerian nation, our demand unambiguously is for the government to restructure this country,” said the group, calling for the Niger Delta to have direct control over its resources.
Even as the Niger Delta Avengers threaten to resume attacks, two foreigners were kidnapped on the now notorious Abuja Kaduna expressway.
The kidnappers abducted one American and one Canadian and also killed two police officers, who tried to stop the kidnap from taking place.
The American and Canadian were ambushed by unknown gunmen around Kagarko on their way from the city of Kaduna to the capital Abuja on Tuesday evening, Mukhtar Aliyu, a spokesman for the Kaduna state police, told Reuters by phone.
“The two police escorts attached to them engaged the kidnappers in a fierce gun battle, which resulted in the unfortunate death of the two police officers,” he said, without providing further details.
The Abuja-Kaduna road has recently become a hot spot for kidnappings. Last February, two German archaeologists were abducted in the region, though they were later freed.
In the troubled Benue State, at least four people were killed in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas of Benue state by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen in fresh attacks, coming less than a week after over 70 corpses of slain farmers were buried in Makurdi.
Governor Samuel Ortom disclosed this Wednesday at the Benue Peoples House Makurdi, when he received former military administrator of Benue State, Dominic Oneya, who led a delegation of his Foundation on a condolence visit to the governor.
Ortom, who said two women had been reportedly killed in Guma and two persons in Logo, stressed that pockets of killings were still going on in the state.
He reiterated the call on security agents to arrest the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, who are still issuing threats of resisting implementation of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law in the state.
Governor Ortom stated that crises between herdsmen and farmers had lingered for years without anyone coming up with a bold step to address same, saying the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law in Benue was meant to permanently address the challenge.
Meanwhile, in Maiduguri, the heartland of Boko Haram attacks, suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 12 people and injured 48 others in an attack on Wednesday officials from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for Borno told Reuters.
Two bombers struck a market in the Muna Garage area on the outskirts of Maiduguri late on Wednesday afternoon, the SEMA officials said.
Muna Garage is the site of a camp for displaced people and a frequent target of Boko Haram attacks.
In the wake of the attack, the smell of burned blood lingered while parts of the market were still ablaze, according to a Reuters witness.
Analysts have called President Buhari to immediately move to halt the rising sense of insecurity across the country.
