Nigeria militants set off bombs, step up threats

By Jon Gambrell (AP). Lagos, Nigeria — Militants in Nigeria’s oil-producing region detonated two car bombs Monday  (March 15 2010) near a government building where officials were discussing an amnesty deal, showing their resolve to resume attacks after an agreement to bring peace and economic benefits to the area unraveled.

Two people were injured and windows were blown out of the meeting room in an attack that was heard on live TV. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, warned that the bombings in Warri are part of a new wave of attacks coming to Delta state, which remains deeply impoverished despite its oil wealth.

“The deceit of endless dialogue and conferences will no longer be tolerated,” the group said in a statement e-mailed to reporters just before the attack.

The bombings did not immediately affect global oil prices, which in the past have risen after pipelines and oil companies operating in Nigeria were attacked. MEND’s attacks last year cut Nigeria’s oil production by roughly 1 million barrels a day, allowing Angola to surge ahead as Africa’s top oil producer.

MEND e-mailed a statement to reporters Monday minutes before the bombing, urging that the government building and nearby facilities be evacuated. Just before the bombs went off, Delta state spokesman Linus Chima told The Associated Press that “there is nothing to worry about at all.”

On the live broadcast carried by African Independent Television, a Nigerian satellite channel, an explosion could be heard, halting a speaker in mid-sentence. A man’s voice then urged those inside to remain calm. Footage broadcast later showed flames and smoke rising from a nearby roadway. Witnesses said the blasts blew out windows in the meeting room, where three state governors and a federal minister had gathered.

“I think it was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the peace talks,” Chima said afterward. He said two people were hurt but did not identify them.

A government-sponsored amnesty deal to offer cash payments to militants foundered in recent months in the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who pushed for the deal last year but has not been running the country since late November due to illness. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the Delta, is the acting president but hasn’t pacified the militants.

“They obviously feel time has run out and they needed to launch a new string of attacks,” said Kissy Agyeman-Togobo, a political analyst with IHS Global Insight.

The militants have used car bombs before. In April 2006, MEND claimed responsibility for attacks on an army barracks and an oil refinery in which two people were killed. It also detonated a car bomb outside a state governor’s office in December 2006.

MEND said in its statement that in coming days it would attack installations and oil companies across the Niger Delta, including those of the French oil company Total.

“We obviously are monitoring the situation very closely and maintaining a very high level of vigilance,” said Total spokeswoman Phenelope Semavoine.

Militant groups in the Niger Delta have attacked pipelines, kidnapped petroleum company employees and fought government troops since January 2006. They demand that the federal government send more oil-industry funds to Nigeria’s southern region, which remains poor despite five decades of oil production. They also criticize oil giants for polluting rivers with spilled oil and flared excess gas produced when drilling. ref: Associated Press Writer Angela Doland in Paris contributed to this report.