Nigeria's most prominent rebel group says it has carried out an "unprecedented attack" on an oil tanker facility in Lagos state.

"The depot and loading tankers moored at the facility are currently on fire," said the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).
It was not immediately clear whether the attack had taken place but police were investigating, reported Reuters.

Previous attacks by Mend have mostly hit the Niger Delta in the south.

Such attacks have severely cut Nigeria's oil output.

In a statement, Mend said that "heavily armed" men had "carried out an unprecedented attack on the Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos" at 2230 hours (2130GMT).

It follows claims from the group in recent days that it had blown up several oil pipelines and captured six foreign crew from onboard an oil tanker.

nuzo:

Nowhere seem to be safe in nigeria again.
Maybe nigeria will now come to a round table for serious discussions and negotiations.

This is a MAJOR development in the Niger Delta war. With this audacious attack on Nigeria' commercial capital, located miles from the oil fields, the Niger Delta War has now officially expanded to become the Second Nigerian Civil War.

Those who have till now characterized the delta militants as a bunch of disorganized hoodlums are about to see just how wrong that assesment has been all along. Without mentioning the facilities and infrastructure by name, Lagos, Nigeria is a target-rich environment for determined saboteurs, and it is now safe to say that the chit has definitely hit the fan, with this massive explosion occurring within shouting and shooting distance of the metropolis

Perhaps then it is a good thing that my percieved desires have never and will never influence the outcome of events much larger than you or I.

. . .at least they've struck one of the enemy targets.remaining otta,abuja,kaduna and kano

OYB_MEND:

a 21st century Nigerian misses Abacha

even if Abacha is alive he can't hang a Saro Wiwa in a democracy

he will be tried in a court of law in which Saro Wiwa would have won.

Nigerians are as dishonest as the contraption called Nigeria

let everybody control their own resources.

MEND should hit Lagos and Abuja more, They should have no known bases and attack the Nation facilities in a Gurrila like fashion. No army has any right to attack any Ijaw community cos of MEND.
In fact they should acquire are loose Nuclear bomb, they dont even need the very expensive Misile to launch it.

With those everyone will come to the negotiation table.

Negro_Ntns:

You have listed zones which by tradition are retaliatory to external attacks. How do you envision this will play out?

If the retaliatory attacks are once again aimed at igbos it might lead to  repeat of history. Remember japanese pearl harbour attack.

There will be counter-retaliation. If this will force the govt to the negotiating table; its long overdue. There is no contract between state and citizen in Nigeria. It might well be a piece of land the people inhabit. There needs to be a contract - that is the basis of the instituitions Obama has been talking about.

Negro_Ntns:

. . . and you are comfortable with a repeat?


It's a backward way to negotiate interests.  Before Obama, has any one else talked about it?  . . . and if we never listened and acted on that drumbeat before, how do you expect that Obama's trumpet will make a difference in the outcomes?

Personally, I have always thought so. For example if you invent something in Nigeria, what happens? Anyone with that experience would know we lack structures and instituitions, where is our patent office and what do they do?

What about when Nigeria had the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) under IBB? It was also clear at that time that we had no structures talkless of adjusting them.

No knowledgeable person thinks that Mend is a terrorist group. It is clear that their interests go beyond petty terrorizing and is an actual struggle to achieve a very simple objective.

Did this really happen

tunku:

No knowledgeable person thinks that Mend is a terrorist group. It is clear that their interests go beyond petty terrorizing and is an actual struggle to achieve a very simple objective. If the Nigerian state even had an iota of intelligence they could have negotiated their way out of this by making certain concessions. The 3 billion dollars that went to strengthen security in the Niger Delta two years ago could have been used for development. Instead of being embezzled, and they wonder why Mend grows stronger. If you were captured by Mend you will most likely get out alive, unless the JTF tries to mount a rescue operation in which case you are certainly dead. This is men against boys. This situation could have been contained two years ago but the shear incompetence of Nigeria fanned the flames. The Nigerian Security Apparatus has no idea on how to deal with this problem, and unless they want to bring in more Israelis, Americans, Brits, and Dutch they will not defeat Mend militarily, All these idiots know is ethnic cleansing. And with Oil discovered off of Ghana and a relatively stable Angola no one wants to stick their head out for this boondoggle. Again anyone who thinks that Mend is a terrorist group is seriously misinformed or are part and parcel invested in the Nigerian Kleptocrazy(sic)  

tunku:

Let's not talk about the IMF or the Impact of colonialism which left behind extrapolative institutions meant to ferry out the resources of the country out of the country instead of setting up institutions that benefited the people. Let's not talk about the idiots who listened to the neo-liberal conservatives at the IMF and Worldbank who foster this false idea of a totally free market without a helping hand to advance development. If these institutions believed in it so much then why hasn't their main backers applied those ideas to their own nations? What economic sense does it make to keep subsidizing industries that aren't profitable such as farming in the west, and recently the auto industry, banking sector, et cetera when cheaper products would be gain by opening them "nekkid" ---without subsidies-- to competition? Because it leads to a loss of jobs and to capital flight. China allows foreign companies to operate within its borders but with a 50 percent stake in those companies and they use those funds to support their homegrown companies that compete with the foreign ones. That simple concept of allowing FDI with limiting rules that actually benefits your own country hasn't reached many African countries and yet it is so logical and simple as to be astounding. No, let's not talk of these things not because they are painful but because we could talk for eternity about them.

tunku:

Let's not talk about the IMF or the Impact of colonialism which left behind extrapolative institutions meant to ferry out the resources of the country out of the country instead of setting up institutions that benefited the people. Let's not talk about the idiots who listened to the neo-liberal conservatives at the IMF and Worldbank who foster this false idea of a totally free market without a helping hand to advance development. If these institutions believed in it so much then why hasn't their main backers applied those ideas to their own nations? What economic sense does it make to keep subsidizing industries that aren't profitable such as farming in the west, and recently the auto industry, banking sector, et cetera when cheaper products would be gain by opening them "nekkid" ---without subsidies-- to competition? Because it leads to a loss of jobs and to capital flight. China allows foreign companies to operate within its borders but with a 50 percent stake in those companies and they use those funds to support their homegrown companies that compete with the foreign ones. That simple concept of allowing FDI with limiting rules that actually benefits your own country hasn't reached many African countries and yet it is so logical and simple as to be astounding. No, let's not talk of these things not because they are painful but because we could talk for eternity about them.

Negro_Ntns:

True. . . unfortunately when these oil companies talk, Leaders around the world listen, knowledgable or not. . . and their talk is not of truth but of evil propaganda.