NIGERIA - GANGS OF PORT HARCOURT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 001163

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2014
TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR EPET EINV PHUM NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA - GANGS OF PORT HARCOURT

REF: A. ABUJA 972

B. LAGOS 1131

Classified By: JOSEPH GREGOIRE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B),(D),AND (E)


1. (C) SUMMARY. Recent gang fighting in the Port Harcourt
area of the Niger Delta highlights yet another brand of
violence in Nigeria (ref A). Reports from oil services and
construction company security managers in the field estimate
that up to 100 people may have died over three to four days
of fighting last week. As witnessed in that fighting, once
unleashed, the gangs of Port Harcourt become difficult to
control, and pose a risk of collateral damage to both local
residents and the area's oil services and shipping
industries. In other areas of the South and North, simmering
ethnic and religious tensions exacerbate struggles for power
and resources that sometimes become deadly. But in the
southern city of Port Harcourt, violence is often perpetrated
by gangs originally formed as political enforcers during the
1999 and 2003 elections. These armed gangs have taken on the
combined roles of vigilantes and guns for hire. Americans do
live and work in Port Harcourt, but to date, we are not aware
of any Americans killed or injured in this strand of
violence. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Deadly clashes between rival gangs in the areas around
Port Harcourt in the last week of May (ref B) highlight a
brand of violence unique to this area of the Delta.
Political heavyweights in Rivers State are said to have
sponsored enforcer gangs to defend their positions and
suppress their rivals. The gangs are well-armed and have
grown in power and belligerence. We can identify several of
the gangs and their roots, and it seems two in particular,
the Ateke Boys and the Bush Boys, are the central enforcers
of Port Harcourt's thug-based rivalries.

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The Ateke Boys: Governor Odili's Vigilantes
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3. (C) It is speculated that immediately following the 1999
general elections that ushered in a new hope for democracy in
Nigeria, as well as the rising clout of the president's
People's Democratic Party (PDP),Dr. Peter Odili, the then
new PDP governor of Rivers State, sought to solidify his
party's power base and eliminate any footholds maintained by
the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Dr. Abiye
Sekibo, the present federal Minister of Transport, was
Odili's state secretary at the time, and is said to have put
together a gang of armed thugs loyal to the governor and the
PDP, financed by State and/or party funds. These enforcers
were deployed to ANPP strongholds in Rivers State, and
targeted Chief Rufus Ada George, the former Abacha regime
governor of Rivers State for whom Odili worked as deputy
governor prior to the 1999 elections.


4. (C) Over time these Odili-backed thugs grew in power and
boldness. It is said they refused to give up their arms, and
continued to operate in groups as vigilantes and mercenaries,
willing to commit even murder for hire. The most notorious
of these groups is led by a man called Ateke Tom, and became
known as the Ateke Boys (a sub-set is known also as the
Icelanders). Dennis Amachree, Halliburton's security manager
who hails from a village at the center of the recent clashes,
told us in January 2004 that the Ateke Boys rigged the 1993
polls in favor of the PDP and intimidated those who favored
other candidates. Some say the Ateke Boys have since been
considered outlaws by the Rivers State and federal
governments. Amachree, however, alleges that when reports of
excessive violence by the Ateke Boys caused the Inspector
General of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to send a team of
investigators to arrest members of the gang and take them to
Abuja, the Rivers State government intervened, convincing the
NPF that the Ateke Boys were necessary vigilantes helping
maintain law and order in the remote villages of the Niger
Delta region. Amachree described the Rivers State NPF
Command as frustrated, prevented by the leaders of the state
government from taking action as the police watch the Ateke
Boys flaunt their weapons and criminal activities.

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The Bush Boys: Former Governor Protects Himself
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5. (C) It is believed that former Rivers State governor Rufus
Ada George sponsors a group of thugs of his own, known as the
Bush Boys, to protect himself and his interests in the Port
Harcourt area. Ada George was once arrested and detained by
Odili, and appears to have decided to fight fire with fire.
The Bush Boys, sometimes referred to as the Amadi-Ama Boys,
periodically clash with the Ateke Boys over control of
villages around Port Harcourt, and some 50 people are said to
have died in such fighting in January.

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Asari Gang: Rivalry Leads to Recent Violence
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6. (C) During the 2003 elections, a vigilante group allegedly
under the direction of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, the President of
the Ijaw Youth Council, is said to have run similar
intimidation and vote rigging schemes as the Ateke Boys, also
on behalf of the PDP. A growing rivalry between the Asari
gang and the Ateke Boys came to a head earlier this year over
an attempt by the Ateke Boys (on behalf of a state government
commissioner) to displace the traditional ruler of the area
known as Kalibariland, west of Port Harcourt. The Ateke Boys
moved into the town of Buguma after bloody clashes and
"occupied" it for several months. The Asari gang retaliated
in late May (ref B),calling in reinforcements from the Ijaw
community and possibly the Bush Boys to displace the Ateke
Boys.


7. (C) Managers from TSKJ construction company, a consortium
led by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, told
us on May 28 that it suspended its boat traffic along the
Bonny River and around Port Harcourt for the weekend in
anticipation of the ongoing violence and possible response
from the Nigerian Navy. Company managers were particularly
concerned that the violence could escalate with an alliance
among the Asari gang, the Bush Boys, and unaligned Ijaw
fighters. They also were concerned that Governor Odili might
support the Ateke Boys, fueling the fight and possibly
shutting down river traffic. On June 2, news reports and oil
services company sources indicated that President Obasanjo
ordered Navy, Army and Mobile Police (MOPOL) assets deployed
to Buguma and its environs to stabilize the situation, and
Governor Odili urged the town's fleeing residents to return
home and remain calm.

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Naming Rites: International Smorgasbord
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8. (C) We have also heard of a number of other gangs
operating in and around Port Harcourt under names such as the
Italian Boys and the German Boys. Their sponsors are yet
unknown to us (as are the roots of their monikers),but the
gangs seem to be involved in semi-organized criminal
enterprises such as car theft rings and armed robberies.
Toyota 4X4 trucks driven by many oil service companies are
favorite targets.


9. (C) COMMENT. It seems Governor Odili of Rivers State took
the same step to try to solidify his power base as other
politicians and opportunists have done in other parts of the
Delta; he armed a group of disenfranchised youths and paid
them for their loyalty. And as we have seen in the conflicts
around Warri, once these disenfranchised and disillusioned
youths taste the power that comes from the barrel of a gun,
it is impossible to convince them to give it up, and
extremely difficult to keep them under control. Odili's
thugs appear to have splintered, and are now fighting each
other under the patronage of others. The governor of Rivers
State may have reached a crossroads; because the state
government has a vital interest in maintaining peace and
commercial security in and around Port Harcourt, he may be
forced to stop backing the Ateke Boys and let the police and
federal forces clean up the area, if they can. As said by
Halliburton's Amachree, "the government has created monsters
that it cannot control." But control of the waterways of
Port Harcourt and Bonny River is essential to maintaining
shipping and oil services operations in the Delta. END
COMMENT.

HINSON-JONES