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Africa Subsaharan
Sea Pirates Kill Four Nigerian Navy Personnel, Abduct Three Foreigners
2020-01-07
[All Africa] Four Naval ratings, who were part of a six-man Naval rescue squad, were killed in a gun duel between them and suspected sea pirates, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

The firefight occurred at about 11 p.m. on Thursday, January 2, a top Naval source said. The source asked not to be named as he was not permitted to talk to journalists.

The attack occurred in the jurisdiction of the NNS Delta, an operations base in Warri, Delta State, one of the seven units under the jurisdiction of the Central Naval Command.

The sea robbers were said to have attacked one of Nigeria’s dredgers, MV AMBIKA, a Sterling Oil dredger close to Ramos River entrance, before the six-man troop of the Nigerian Navy were sent to neutralise their threat.

Before the team arrived, the source said, the suspected sea robbers had "boarded the vessel and kidnapped three crew members (two Russians and one Indian), leaving behind five other crew members."

Upon the arrival of the rescue team at the scene of the incident, a gun duel ensued between the armed ratings onboard the vessel and the sea robbers.

Four of the six Naval ratings deployed onboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was also reportedly stolen by the pirates.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) pops up on the radar again.
Related:
Delta State: 2019-02-02 Armed herdsmen kill Assistant Superintendent of Police in Delta
Delta State: 2016-05-06 Adenuga, Governor Bello, late Ooni of Ife, Andy Uba named in latest Panama Paper leak
Delta State: 2016-05-06 Niger Delta Avengers blow up Chevron facilities
Related:
MEND: 2019-10-21 Niger floods force 23,000 from their homes
MEND: 2018-11-07 Live Updates*** 2018 Midterm Election Results
MEND: 2017-02-25 Starbucks' 'Brand Perception' Takes A Massive Hit After Announcing Plans To Hire 10,000 Refugees
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Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria: State Successful in Henry Okah Case As Sentence, Convictions Reinstated
2018-02-25
[All Africa] Convicted terrorist Henry Okah
...who has appeared in our archives from time to time over the years ...
's 24-year prison sentence and convictions have been reinstated after the Constitutional Court on Friday set aside the Supreme Court of Appeal's order overturning the Warri bombing convictions, which led to a reduction in his sentence.

Okah was originally sentenced in March 2013 in the South Gauteng High Court after being convicted on 13 counts of terrorism, including engaging in terrorist activities, conspiracy to engage in terrorist activities, and delivering, placing and detonating an bomb, relating to two boom-mobiles detonated in Abuja, Nigeria, on October 1, 2010, the anniversary of the country's independence.

Twelve people were killed and 36 were maimed.

One person was killed and 11 seriously injured in another bombing in Warri on March 15, 2010, at a post-amnesty dialogue meeting.

In both bombings, two boom-mobiles went off minutes apart. The cars were parked in close proximity to each other, News24 reported at the time.

Okah, a Nigerian citizen who has been a permanent resident in South Africa since 2007, was found to be the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
... a confederation of bands of bandidos portraying itself of a political organization grabbing for Nigeria's oil boodle ...
 and was convicted for terrorist acts under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.
Their last significant pronouncement was a threat in 2013 to bomb Muslim institutions and kill Muslim clerics, but nothing seems to have come of it.
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Africa Subsaharan
Militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta slam president
2017-01-03
[AA.TR] Nigeria’s peace drive in the oil-rich delta region suffered a major setback on Sunday night when a key krazed killer group slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly stalling the grinding of the peace processor.

In a statement, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
... a confederation of bands of bandidos portraying itself of a political organization grabbing for Nigeria's oil boodle ...
 (MEND) -- an influential krazed killer group -- said Buhari’s "arrogant" posturing had affected the region and blamed him for failing to honor previous agreements.

"Prior to and after his reluctant meeting with traditional rulers, opinion leaders and stakeholders of the Niger Delta region under the auspices of Pan Niger Delta Forum [PANDEF] on Nov. 1, 2016, Buhari has been carrying on arrogantly and making controversial, prejudicial, conflicting and contradictory statements about the politics and economy of the oil-rich region," the statement quoting a front man for the movement, Jomo Gbomo, said.

"Without prejudice to the pre-2015 presidential election endorsement freely and voluntarily given to Buhari on Jan. 6, 2015, MEND hereby categorically and unequivocally passes a vote of no confidence on the government of President Buhari," Gbomo added.

The group accused the president of "blackmailing" leaders from the region over the peace talks and accused the administration of not forming its own team to interact with stakeholders from the oil-rich region.

It also accused the president of reneging on his pledge to facilitate the release of all political prisoners connected to the agitation in the region, while also allegedly sanctioning the arrest of top krazed killers.

The presidency has not reacted to the development yet which threatens the fragile peace in the area.

MEND, whose leaders Henry Okah and others are standing trial for alleged bombings of government infrastructure, has been said to be a key ally of Buhari from the region. Former President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau.Other than that he's pretty useless as the Boko Haram debacle shows..
 also hails from the region.

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Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria’s MEND Issues Threat to Bomb Mosques, Kill Clerics
2013-04-14
Nigeria’s Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it will start a bombing campaign against mosques and Islamic institutions, a week after the rebel group said it killed 15 security personnel in the southern oil-producing Bayelsa state.

“The bombings of mosques, haj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade,” MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an e-mailed statement today. The campaign, codenamed “Barbarossa,” will start May 31, it said.

MEND may consider a cease-fire if the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Catholic Church and the group’s suspected leader Henry Okah intervene, according to the statement. The threat comes as the government of President Goodluck Jonathan battles Islamist militants in the mainly Muslim north and the capital, Abuja, in which hundreds of people have died since 2009.

MEND, the main rebel group in the the area, destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell Plc oil well in Nembe in southern Bayelsa state yesterday as part of an operation it calls “Hurricane Exodus,” Gbomo said.

Precious Okolobo, a Lagos-based spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian unit, said he couldn’t confirm the attack when contacted by phone today.

Claimed Attack

MEND said April 3 it would resume attacks in Africa’s largest oil producer after Okah was sentenced last month to 24 years in prison in South Africa. He was found guilty of 13 counts of terrorism, including a bombing claimed by MEND in which 12 people died in Abuja on Oct. 1, 2010.

On April 10, Nigerian authorities recovered 10 bodies of policemen killed four days earlier in an attack on a boat by gunmen in the oil-rich Niger River delta, Bayelsa state Police Commissioner Kingsley Omire said.

Three policemen and the boat driver jumped in the river in the southern state when gunmen opened fire and were later rescued, Omire said. The attack was claimed by MEND, which said it killed all 15 people aboard.

Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA run joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump most of the country’s oil. Nigeria depends on crude exports for more than 95 percent of foreign income and 80 percent of government revenue, according to the Petroleum Ministry.

While Okah denies being a leader of MEND, he has said he commands the support of many armed factions in Nigeria’s oil region.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria: MEND Threatens 'Hell' Over Okah's Jail As Keyamo Condemns Judgement
2013-03-27
The armed militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, on Tuesday condemned the 24-year jail term passed on its leader, Henry Okah, by the South African High Court over charges that he masterminded a series of terrorism incidents, including the October 1, 2010 twin bombings in Abuja.

The group threatened 'hell' over the conviction of Mr. Okah.

Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, has also condemned the trial and conviction of Mr. Okah, describing the sentence by the South African court as "totally flawed."

Justice Neels Claaseen of the High Court in South Gauteng in South Africa on Tuesday sentenced Mr. Okah to 24 years in prison after finding him guilty on 13 terrorism charges, including the Abuja bombing in which a dozen persons were killed as Nigeria was celebrating its 50th independence anniversary.

According to Mr. Claassen, during the trial Mr. Okah showed little remorse for his crime. He also pointed out that Mr. Okah's intentions in the bombing incidents were to "obtain maximum casualties."

"Effectively, the accused Okah is therefore sentenced to 24 years imprisonment," Mr. Claassen said.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
South African court jails Henry Okah for 24 years
2013-03-27
[Guardian Ng] NIGERIAN krazed killer Henry Okah who has been found guilty of 13 terrorism-related charges over twin boom-mobileings during the country's Independence Day in 2010 is to spend 24 years in jail.

The verdict was given Tuesday by a South African court.

At least 12 people were killed and 36 others injured during the bombings. Okah led a group, which said it was fighting to help Niger Delta residents gain a greater share of the oil wealth from their part of southern Nigeria.

According to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report, the court established that Okah is the former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
... a confederation of bands of bandidos portraying itself of a political organization grabbing for Nigeria's oil boodle ...
 (MEND).

He also received a 13-year jail term for threats made to the South African government after his arrest in October 2010 but this runs concurrently with his 24-year sentence.

The judge found that the state had proven Okah's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt because he didn't testify in his own defence during the trial.

He had repeatedly denied any involvement in the bombings.

Prosecutors have argued that although Okah is not a South African citizen, the country had the jurisdiction to try him under the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act.

Analysts believe it would have been too dangerous for him to be tried in Nigeria because of the presence of his krazed killer supporters.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
S.Africa: Nigerian 2010 bomb suspect gets 24 years
2013-03-26
A South African court sentenced a Nigerian to 24 years in prison on Tuesday after finding him guilty of masterminding twin car bombings in Nigeria.

Henry Okah was found guilty in January for the October 2010 bombing in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, that killed at least 12 people and wounded three dozen during a celebration to mark the country's 50 years of independence.

The South African Press Association reported that Judge Neels Claassen of the High Court in Johannesburg announced Okah's jail sentence, which includes 12 years in prison for each bombing and 13 years for threats made to the South African government after his October 2010 arrest. The 13 years will be served concurrently with the 24 years.

Okah was a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, which claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The group accused Nigeria's government of failing to alleviate poverty in the delta, even though it earns billions of dollars from the region's oil. In 2006, militants from groups like MEND started a wave of attacks targeting foreign oil companies, including bombing their pipelines, kidnapping their workers and fighting with security forces.

When Okah was convicted, Judge Claassen had said the state had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and the Nigerian's failure to testify meant the evidence was uncontested. Okah was found guilty on 13 counts of terrorism.

Link


Africa Subsaharan
South African court convicts Nigerian terrorist
2013-01-21
A South African court found suspected Niger Delta militant leader Henry Okah guilty of terrorism on Monday for his role in two car bombs that killed at least 10 people in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, at an independence day ceremony in 2010.

Judge Neels Claassen said Okah, who was charged with leading the militant MEND group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region, was found guilty on 13 counts ranging from conspiracy to commit terrorism to detonating explosives.

Claassen told the court, "The evidence that was given by his accomplices was not contradicted."

MEND, or the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, carried out a number of attacks on oilfields and pipelines across the region, which is home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, until a government amnesty in 2009.

Security experts think Okah - who accepted the 2009 amnesty after gun-running and treason charges against him were dropped - was at one time the mastermind behind MEND although he has denied ever being its leader.

The 2010 explosions hit the official celebrations laid on in Abuja for Nigeria's 50th anniversary of independence.
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Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria militants seize seven oil workers
2010-11-18
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Nigeria's main bully boy group said today it had seized seven oil workers in a raid on an ExxonMobil facility and threatened a major attack while claiming the military fired rockets at one of its camps.

The offshore raid was the latest such incident in recent months in the Niger Delta, the heart of the country's huge oil industry, and the military warned of action at the weekend, saying residents near bully boy camps should clear out.

"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
... a confederation of bands of bandidos portraying itself of a political organization grabbing for Nigeria's oil boodle ...
 (MEND) confirms the attack on the ExxonMobil Ibeno oil facility in Akwa Ibom state... was carried out by its fighters.

"Seven local employees were kidnapped," it said in a statement in apparent reference to the weekend attack staged by gunnies on an offshore platform operated by US oil giant ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil's Nigerian branch on Monday confirmed one of its offshore facilities was boarded by unknown armed persons in the evening of Sunday.
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Africa Subsaharan
Iran to cooperate with Nigeria on illegal arms
2010-11-13
[Emirates 24/7] Iran has promised cooperation in a probe of an illegal arms shipment discovered in Lagos and sent from an Iran, Nigeria's foreign minister said Friday after meeting his Iranian counterpart.

Iran's cooperation will include granting Nigerian authorities access to an Iranian believed to have taken refuge in the Iranian embassy in Abuja, Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia told journalists.

"One of the individuals connected to the shipment was an Iranian national who we understand from security reports took refuge in the Iranian embassy," Ajumogobia told news hounds.

He said he held "very productive" talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Thursday night in Abuja.

After the meeting, Mottaki "immediately directed that access be given to our security agencies to interview this individual who may be able to throw more light on the circumstances of the shipment, its destination and why we have the Nigerian consignee."

"If Nigeria finds that at the conclusion of the investigation that there has been a breach of international law, a breach of UN sanctions, Nigeria is a member of the UN Security Council, we will do what is necessary," he said.

Iran is currently under UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.

Security agents last month intercepted 13 containers discharged from the vessel CMA CGM Everest at the country's busiest port of Apapa in Nigeria's economic hub of Lagos.

Shipping firm CMA CGM said the containers had been loaded and sealed in Iran by an Iranian businessman who does not appear on an international list of prohibited traders.

CMA CGM, based in France, said the containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas, a southern port city of Iran, and discharged in Lagos in July.

But some time last month the shipper sought to have the containers reloaded and sent to Gambia, a tiny west African country wedged inside Senegal, according to the firm.

Earlier this week, Nigeria's intelligence agency said it had been monitoring the shipment, which was disguised as building material, before it arrived in the country.

It also said the shipment's destination was Nigeria, and "any argument that the cargo came into the country by mistake is false."

The consignee and the clearing agent had been jugged, the agency said.

Illegal weapons are widespread in Nigeria, but the recent discovery led to major concerns, with elections set for early next year and following the independence day twin car boomings on October 1 that killed at least 12 people.

The country's most prominent turban group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta,
... a confederation of bands of bandidos portraying itself of a political organization grabbing for Nigeria's oil boodle ...
 grabbed credit for the car boomings, which marked the first such attack in the capital Abuja.

MEND has carried out scores of attacks and kidnappings in recent years, but mostly in the oil-producing Niger Delta region and rarely with such a high number of casualties.

The group claims to be fighting for a fairer distribution of oil revenue, but it has also been seen as an umbrella group for criminal gangs.

Elections in Nigeria have often been tainted by violence.

The car booms went kaboom! near where Nigerian leaders and foreign dignitaries were attending independence day commemorations, heightening fears of a bloody campaign season.
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Africa Subsaharan
Nigerian militant claims oil rig attack
2010-11-10
(Xinhua) -- Nigerian main snuffy group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
... a confederation of bands of bandidos portraying itself of a political organization grabbing for Nigeria's oil boodle ...
 (MEND), on Tuesday said it was responsible for the attack on the Shallow- water Okoro oilfield in the late hours of Sunday as an official confirmed that seven hostages had been seized.

The group spokesperson Jomo Gbomo disclosed this in a statement reaching here.
"Jomo Gbomo"? We have an early winner in this week's funny name contest...
London-Based oil exploration firm Afren said on Monday that Nigerian gunnies had attacked its offshore oil rig and made off with five crew members.

The company also said two others were maimed in the attack which occurred on Sunday.

"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) hereby confirm that the attack on the Shallow-water Okoro oilfield in the late hours of Sunday the Nov. 7 2010 was carried out by our fighters," the group said.

"All the kidnapped expatriates are well and in our safe custody, " it added. "All the fighters who participated in this attack have safely returned to base," MEND said.

"Within the next 24hrs, we will release the names of all expatriates currently being held in our different camps," it added.

A separate report quoted a company official saying that Seven foreign hostages were taken, modifying the previous number of five. It also said two Indonesian victims had been confirmed.
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Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria arrests 'rebel's' brother
2010-10-18
[Al Jazeera] Nigerian security forces have arrested the brother of Henry Okah, a former leader of the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), over his suspected involvement in deadly bombings in Abuja, the capital, on October 1.

Charles Okah was taken into custody at his home in the southern city of Lagos on Sunday.

He has been accused of helping to fund the twin car bombings that struck during independence anniversary celebrations in Abuja.

Henry Okah is alleged to have masterminded the attack that left 12 people dead and dozens of others injured.

Al Jazeera's Ama Boateng, reporting from the capital, confirmed that Okah had been arrested.

Boateng said: "We can confirm that Charles Okah, Henry Okah's brother, was arrested on Saturday afternoon in Lagos.

"This is in connection with the bombings in Abuja."

A government official said that Charles Okah was mentioned by suspects as a source of funds for the Abuja blasts.

"He is with us in Abuja," the official, who chose to remain anonymous, told reporters.

The arrest comes a day after a warning, signed Jomo Gbomo, the pseudonym used to claim the independence day blasts and years of attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta, was emailed to media saying that another bombing was planned for Abuja.
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