OilVoice - Leading Nigerian Rebel Leader Accepts Amnesty Offer

Leading Nigerian Rebel Leader Accepts Amnesty Offer

Thursday, October 01, 2009

A leading Nigerian rebel commander has agreed to cease fighting his campaign against the government and foreign oil companies in the troubled Niger Delta region, in return for an unconditional pardon from President Umaru Yar'Adua.

Ateke Tom, is well know as one of three leading factional militant leaders with links to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) - who as a group have failed to accept any amnesty offer. MEND maintains that the amnesty deal fails to address its demands for local communities to get an improved cut of Nigeria's oil riches - which is its original moral purpose.

Under President Yar'Adua amnesty program, fighters in the oil-rich Niger Delta region - which is the central hub fro Nigeria's oil and gas reserves - have been given the option to lay down their arms by October 4, in order to avoid prosecution for their actions. So far hundreds of armed rebels have handed in their weapons and accepted the deal.

Action by MEND and other rebels groups in the region have cut the African nations oil exports by around 20% since 2006, and subsequently scared away any further foreign investment in the country's leading industry. However, Nigeria's Petroleum Minister, Rilwanu Lukman, publicly stated recently that since an improvement in security in the region, the nation's oil output has since risen back up to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), up from industry's nadir at 1.2 million bpd seen during the heights of fighting between the rebels at the government-run military Joint Task Force (JTF).

The symbolic significance of Tom's acceptance of the amnesty is unprecedented and represents a major coup for the authorities. Rebel leader Tom founded the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) a decade ago, one of several groups to enjoy strong backing from political figures who used them as a political pawn to help them rig elections. Although he has largely remained independent of MEND, Tom's faction boasts at least two attacks against Nigeria's oil industry last year. The authorities also claim that he is also heavily involved in oil bunkering - a prosperous trade in high quantities of stolen crude oil smuggled onto the international market.

However, the government will undoubtedly remain wary of Tom's actions given that he previously surrendered his arms during a similar peace initiative back in 2004, only to take them up the fight once again at a later date.