NIGERIA: DEFENSE HQ'S PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000879

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/W, INR/AA
BAGHDAD FOR DMCCULLOUGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/23/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: DEFENSE HQ'S PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE
LATEST IN THE NIGER DELTA

REF: IIR 6 871 0074 09

Classified By: Political Counselor Walter N.S. Pflaumer for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d)


1. (SBU) On May 18, Colonel C.A. Jemitola, Defense
Headquarters' Director of Information, gave a press
conference to provide an update on the upsurge of fighting in
Delta State between the Joint Task Force (JTF) and
criminal/militant groups. The conference was attended by
Poloff, other Mission officers, and officials from other
embassies, as well as representatives from various Nigerian
news outlets. Jemitola began by attributing the fighting to
the May 13 ambush of JTF forces by militants (reftel),which
Jemitola claimed resulted in the deaths of several Nigerian
soldiers, the hijacking of the M/V Spirit, and the torture
and kidnapping of a number of the Spirit's crew. He said
subsequent fighting, in which the JTF targeted Tom Polo's
"Camp Five," was merely a defensive response to the
"unjustified aggression of the criminals." Jemitola took
pains to assert that the JTF was "at no time the aggressors
... and extra care has been taken to limit collateral
damage...and no communities were razed" as a result of the
JTF's actions. Only a handful of journalists' questions were
allowed; Jemitola's responses included a refusal to give any
specific figures of JTF casualties, a denial that a JTF
helicopter had been shot down, and a refusal to elaborate on
basically almost any aspect of the matter. The entire press
conference was finished in eight minutes.


2. (C//NF) DAO reports that a senior Nigerian defense
official later went on to say that foreign citizens were
advised to avoid the Delta until a "naval blockade was put in
place," and he said that as some members of Camp Five had
fled to other nearby camps, the JTF was attacking those as
well. He said the JTF's attack on Camp Five was intended to
send a message to other criminals/militants, that if such a
large, well-armed camp could be taken down by the JTF, then
no camp was safe. He denied press reports that jet fighters
and artillery had been used to attack, saying that all of the
JTF's tactics involved small arms and the very limited,
tightly-controlled use of helicopter gunship support. Last,
he said that camps had been set up for internally displaced
persons.


3. (C) COMMENT: The mantra repeated throughout the press
conference was "everything in the Delta was peaceful until
those criminals spoiled it all by attacking us," which sounds
like a strange statement to make on behalf of a task force
set up to root out criminality/militancy, unless one realizes
that the normal state of affairs between the two groups is
indeed an equilibrium that allows both to minimize casualties
while maximizing profit, primarily from oil bunkering.
Although other reporting suggests that the GON has been
contemplating a military move against the "militants" for
some time, the real mystery is why this fighting -- whose
scope and violence is far greater than anything the Niger
Delta has seen in several years -- has flared up as a result
of a relatively minor skirmish. END COMMENT.


4. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Lagos.
SANDERS