02/25/2006

Lagos — NIGER Delta militants yesterday paraded of the nine foreign hostages before newsmen, vowing not to release the kidnapped oil workers until the military pulls out of the Niger Delta region. The hostage, Macon Hawkins. 68-year-old Texan, told reporters that he and his colleagues were unharmed and had been well treated since gunmen seized them from their pipe-laying barge.

02/25/2006

column ONITSHA erupted. The indescribable anger that provoked the killings in the city by the lordly Niger reflect the mood in the land. First, was the killing of Igbo and other Christians, starting from Maidugri, and spreading rapidly to other places in the North, in a familiar wave of atrocity. This time, the excuse was provided by the images of Muhammed. A mob of Moslem fanatics in the north of Nigeria, reacting to the mostly unflattering representation of the prophet of Islam in a Danish newspaper, over reached themselves when they began killing and burning other Nigerians in protest. They went after a familiar target: the ubiquitous Igbo; the symbol for the northern Moslem fanatic, of all the things that is wrong with his world. The Nigerian version of the protests against the Danish newspaper cartoons, in other words, took a unique turn: while Moslems all over the world directed their anger against the West, especially the European Union; burning flags and torching embassies, the Nigerian Moslem turned his attention to the Igbo, burning and killing; determined to throw one more symbolic punch in the cycle which began with the killing of the Igbo in 1945 in Jos, and when Inua Wada organized the first Kano pogroms in 1953. Needless to say, it has always been taken for granted that the Igbo would roll over and take it. But this proved to be a miscalculation.

02/24/2006

This Day (Lagos)Warri/Port Harcourt - The crisis in the Niger Delta assumed international dimension yesterday as the Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group (WIPMG) sent a warning to the government of the United States of America (USA) to steer clear of the Niger Delta or its forces shall be disgraced if it dares the people.

02/24/2006

This Day (Lagos)Lagos - December 10 last year, I gave a talk to the Rotary Club of Apakun Oshodi, in Lagos. Because I had become bored by long written speeches, where many government officials hide to dodge candid discussions on critical issues, I decided to speak extempore. While I waited for the flight at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, I tried to think of what to speak on. One of the things that interfered with my concentration was the noise and chatter of the happy students of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, who filled the hot waiting lounge.

02/24/2006

Daily Champion (Lagos)IJAW militants yesterday alleged that the United States of America (USA) military personnel have stormed the Niger Delta region following the crises that engulfed the area in recent times. Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and Warri-Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group, made the allegation in separate statements and warned U.S government to steer clear of the Niger Delta so as not to aggravate the situation.

02/24/2006

Warri/Port Harcourt — The crisis in the Niger Delta assumed international dimension yesterday as the Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group (WIPMG) sent a warning to the government of the United States of America (USA) to steer clear of the Niger Delta or its forces shall be disgraced if it dares the people.

02/24/2006

column Lagos — December 10 last year, I gave a talk to the Rotary Club of Apakun Oshodi, in Lagos. Because I had become bored by long written speeches, where many government officials hide to dodge candid discussions on critical issues, I decided to speak extempore. While I waited for the flight at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, I tried to think of what to speak on. One of the things that interfered with my concentration was the noise and chatter of the happy students of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, who filled the hot waiting lounge.

02/24/2006

IJAW militants yesterday alleged that the United States of America (USA) military personnel have stormed the Niger Delta region following the crises that engulfed the area in recent times. Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and Warri-Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group, made the allegation in separate statements and warned U.S government to steer clear of the Niger Delta so as not to aggravate the situation.

02/24/2006

Warri — Armed militants holding nine foreign oil workers hostage in Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta, on Friday released photos of the captives for the first time but denied entering into talks with the government over their release.

02/24/2006

Lagos/Warri/Port Harcourt — A new twist crept yesterday into the crisis in the Niger Delta after militants holding the nine expatriate hostages said that Shell Petroleum Develop-ment Company (SPDC) would need to obey an order by a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt to pay $1.5 billion (N193.5 billion) to the Ijaw Aborigines of Bayelsa State.

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