Denying payoff, militants vow attack on Nigeria oil pipeline

LAGOS, Nigeria - The main militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said yesterday it will attack major oil pipelines in the next 30 days to show it has not received payment from the government to end its campaign.

The head of the state-run oil firm NNPC was quoted in Nigerian newspapers yesterday as saying the company had paid militant groups $12 million to protect facilities, including the Chanomi creek pipeline in Delta state.

The company later issued a statement saying it had been quoted out of context and had contracted with a local community construction firm to carry out repairs at Chanomi for $50 million, which they said was part of their "community policing policy."

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta whose attacks have cut Nigeria's oil output by about 20 percent since early 2006, said the money went to criminal gangs and that genuine "freedom fighters" could not be bought off.

"MEND is aware that huge payments have been made to some criminal gangs in Delta state as a protection fee . . . MEND will never sell its birthright for a bowl of porridge," the group said in an e-mailed statement.

"To prove that we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days," it said.

Bomb attacks on pipelines in the delta, the hub of Africa's biggest oil industry which produces around 2 million barrels per day, have disrupted supplies from the world's eighth biggest oil exporter and helped push global energy prices to record highs.

NNPC's Chanomi creek pipeline carries oil from the Escravos terminal into refineries in Warri and Kaduna. Royal Dutch Shell, a giant Anglo-Dutch firm whose facilities have been among those worst hit by MEND's campaign of sabotage, also has a pipeline in the Chanomi creek which feeds into the Forcados oil export terminal.

The government of President Umaru Yar'Adua is under immense pressure to pacify the region and has promised to address the root causes of the unrest by bringing much-needed development to its impoverished and polluted villages.

Abubakar Yar'Adua, group managing director of NNPC, was quoted in several Nigerian newspapers as telling a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the company had held talks with the militants and paid them funds so that it could repair Chanomi.