[mobglob-discuss] More oil plant takeovers in Nigeria

[Graeme Bacque]

Jul. 17, 2002. 10:46 AM  The Toronto Star

Women storm more Nigerian oil plants
Verbal agreement to end takeover falls apart on apparent ethic divisions

ESCRAVOS, Nigeria (AP) — Ethnic Ijaw women stormed four ChevronTexaco oil 
pipeline stations in southeastern Nigeria, a prominent Ijaw activist said 
today.

The takeovers came as signs of an ethnic dispute emerged in a separate 
10-day occupation of the company's main oil terminal in the Niger Delta region.

Kingsley Kuku, spokesman for the Ijaw Youth Council, said hundreds of 
unarmed Ijaw women captured four pipeline flowstations in boats Tuesday.

An unknown number of employees at the sites were "allowed to leave," he 
said. He did not know if any workers remained inside.

Wole Agunbiade, a spokesman for ChevronTexaco's Nigeria subsidiary, could 
neither confirm nor deny the reported takeover.

Kuku said the latest protests occurred near the villages of Opueketa, 
Abiteye, Makaraba and Otunana.

They are some 85 kilometres east of Escravos, ChevronTexaco's 
multimillion-dollar oil export terminal where a separate group of unarmed 
village women has been holed up since sneaking inside July 8.

Ethnic divisions also appear to have emerged among the several hundred 
protesters at Escravos, who are refusing to leave the facility despite a 
verbal agreement to end their siege.

Olowu said the women are waiting for a final agreement to be signed with 
the company and for squabbles between Itsekiri women and protesters of 
other ethnicities to be resolved. She did not elaborate.

"We may leave tomorrow or leave the next day, because there are members of 
other communities that do not co-operate with us that followed us inside 
(the terminal)," Olowu said. "They are not Ijaws, but they are not with us. 
They think that by joining us, they will have right to the land here."

ChevronTexaco executives presented the women with a seven-page memorandum 
of understanding today.

The two sides argued heatedly over the document inside the residence of a 
village chieftain in Ugborodo, about 100 metres across the river from Escravos.

The 10-day takeover trapped an initial 700 Canadian, American, British and 
Nigerian oil workers inside the southeastern Nigerian terminal.

About 200 of them were allowed to leave Sunday, and hundreds more departed 
in a ferry Tuesday morning, leaving just a few dozen trapped inside, 
protesters said.

After the verbal agreement was reached with the company Monday, the women 
permitted ChevronTexaco employees back into the facility's control room so 
they could load two tankers with offshore oil.

But village chiefs threw a sudden twist into the deal Tuesday by insisting 
it be modified to include long-term contracts, such as deals to paint and 
repair the terminal, said Victor Omunu, a spokesman for the protesters.