JULY 11 NIGER DELTA INCIDENT SUMMARY

UNCLAS LAGOS 001021 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W STATE FOR INR/AA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EPET PGOV ASEC PTER CASC NI SUBJECT: JULY 11 NIGER DELTA INCIDENT SUMMARY REF: A. LAGOS 943 ¶B. LAGOS 936 ¶C. LAGOS 912 ¶D. LAGOS 787 ¶1. This is the biweekly roundup of security incidents in the Niger Delta. This roundup excludes "normal" street crime and concentrates on particularly serious incidents with a possible militant or political element. These incidents have not been reported in other cables or are updates of previously reported items. ¶2. June 27 - Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),publicly complained of death threats by a group calling itself the Niger Delta Liberation Army (NDLA). (Note: Mission is not familiar with this group. End note.) Ribadu claims the NDLA, angered over the EFCC's anticorruption campaign, sent numerous death threats to Ribadu and other EFCC personnel via SMS text message threatening attacks in Port Harcourt, Delta State, and elsewhere in the Delta if former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyesiegha is not released. ¶3. June 27 - Workers attacked facilities of construction firm TSKJ at Nigeria Liquid Natural Gas (NLNG),Bonny Island, Rivers State, over a labor dispute, disrupting the site until a settlement was negotiated early on June 28. The workers reportedly destroyed some TSKJ and Daewoo offices, but operations returned to normal within a couple of days. ¶4. June 28 - Over one hundred students from Bakassi stormed the Cameroon Consulate in Calabar, Cross River State and pulled down the Cameroonian national flag to protest the Federal Government's "inhuman" decision to turn the disputed peninsula over to Cameroon. ¶5. July 5 - Most of the eighty-eight crew aboard the CONOIL rig attacked July 4 (reftel A and B) were evacuated except for a small crew remaining aboard to conduct minimal operations. The situation was calm and CONOIL is negotiating with the host community. ¶6. July 10 - Unidentified attackers threw explosives at the Port Harcourt residence of Mr. Okey Ezenwa, Rivers State Governor Peter Odili's brother-in-law. The explosion damaged a security post outside of the residence, and there are no injuries reported. This attack is the third such attack against a prominent, politically-connected citizen in Port Harcourt in the last two months (reftel C and D). BROWNE