Why Kidnap of Foreigners Won't Stop, By Leader of Militants

Vanguard (Lagos)
INTERVIEW
26 May 2007
Posted to the web 26 May 2007

By Emma Amaize
Lagos

THE commander of the Niger-Delta Freedom Fighters (NDFF), aka Egbema One, which kidnapped the four American oil workers of Global Industries, an oil servicing company to the Chevron Nigeria Limited on May 8 in Delta state spoke to Saturday Vanguard in the encampment, where the workers are being held hostage in the creek.

Excerpts:

Why did you people kidnap the four Americans?

Our problem is not with the hostages. We decided to hold them hostage as a means of making the oil companies, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the government to know that we are neglected. After the discovery of oil in Olobiri, Egbema kingdom was the next and since then, we have not seen any development.

Shell and Chevron have been operating since 1971 and since then, our place has remained undeveloped. The attitude of these three groups made us to take this action because we are being marginalised by them.

Also, we want the detained leader of the Niger-Delta Peoples Volunteer Front (NPDVF), Alhaji Asari-Dokubo, former governor of Bayelsa state, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and Ralph Uwazurike, the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) to be released. Go round and see for yourself, we have no roads in Egbema kingdom where about 95 per cent of oil is produced in Delta state.

We also do not have schools in Egbema kingdom even though we occupy a large section of the state. We need tertiary institutions and employment for the youths of this kingdom.

Besides, we don't have pipe-borne water in our communities and we want contracts to be awarded to indigenes of Egbema.

These contracts should not be for non-indigenes only while our communities which are facing the threat of being washed away, namely Gbokoda, Opuama and Polobubor should be saved from extinction. We also want them to dredge the canal from Ogbudugbudu-Polobubor and construct the Ogbinbiri-Ofunama-Udo road. Also, we want jetties to be provided to all our communities as well as providing generating plants and building of town halls, market stalls for communities in Egbema kingdom.

We also want commissioners to be appointed from Egbema, GSM masts to be installed in our area, teachers to be provided for our primary and secondary schools. Papa when say make im pikin no sleep, himself no go sleep because the pikin go dey cry and disturb the papa.

But all these things you enumerated are not things the oil companies would do, it is the duty of the government to provide them,

We know that the government is supposed to provide these things for us but the oil companies are making a lot of money from our environment and they are stashing the money abroad. Are you saying that it is not part of their social responsibility to provide some of these things for us. Or which ones have they done?

We know where to hold the government but when we talk about job slots for us in the oil companies, it is the companies we will hold, not the government. You see, our action is not directed at the Chevron alone, it is to the oil companies operating in our area and also for the government to wake up to their responsibilities.

If you say there are no hospitals here, where are sick people taken to?

That is one of our greatest problems. We have to travel a distance of over three hours to take the sick ones to Warri and Sapele. You know what that means; about 1,000 people die every year as a result.

But the Chevron oil company used to visit the oil communities with their houseboat clinics,

That was in the past, we don't see them again

Why are you holding the oil companies when there is a government agency, the NDDC that was set up to develop the oil communities?

That one, we don't know what they are doing. They said that they awarded contract for the Udo-Ofunama-Azakurama-Zamagie-Ogbudugbudu-Ogbinbiri -Abere road about two years ago and after the survey was done two years ago, we have not seen them.

Do you know that kidnapping people as your group had just done is a criminal act?

Government and the oil companies can say whatever they want to say about what we are doing (being a criminal act) but we know we are no criminals. The companies take our oil, make money for themselves and the government without taking us into consideration. They invaded our land and took our oil and yet, they call us criminals for saying that they should not continue taking our oil without developing our environment.

You know the Americans and other foreign oil workers have only come here to work, what do you think will happen if Americans in turn start kidnapping Nigerians that had gone to work there too?

Look, it is not really that we want to pick white people as hostages but the truth is that the black man does not have hostage value; I don't know if you understand what I mean. It is the only the expatriates that have hostage value and we kidnap them because we don't like seeing them working here while our graduates are left unemployed by the oil companies.

You are calling for development, how can the government bring development to the region when you are causing tension with the kidnapping of oil workers and bombing of oil installations?

If they really say that they will develop the Niger-Delta region, kidnapping will stop. We will even protect the foreign oil workers for them.

But President Obasanjo said long ago that they want to develop the region but the real problem is that you people continue to kidnap oil workers.

He did not mean it. If he meant it, he would not be calling us criminals, he knows that we are fighting for our rights. When the government means it, we will know and we will stop it (kidnapping) for them to do what they have promised. Right now, they promised but didn't fulfill what they had said. That is the problem.

I learnt that Egbema One kidnapped the Americans in order to be paid ransom. Is this not true?

That is not the truth. We did not kidnap for money. I told you the reasons why we kidnapped the Americans. Or don't you believe me? We want development in Egbema kingdom.

So, when are you going to be release them?

We will release them anytime Chevron signs agreement with us on the development projects they will site in our place with the government as observer, just to witness what they have said.

What guarantee are you giving Nigerians and the US government in particular concerning the safety of the Americans in your custody?

They are safe, we will not harm them but if they try to send the Joint Task Force to come here to release them by force, then, there will be bloodshed. But as long as they tell us what they will do for us, we will hand them over safely, nothing will happen to them.

Hostages: US firm contacts Vanguard for information

BARELY 24 hours after the publication of our exclusive trip to the hideout of the militants, last Saturday, the Global Industries with headquarters in America contacted Saturday Vanguard following an overpowering siege to their office by uneasy family members of the four US oil workers who are hungry for more information on the fate of the hostages after reading our news report on the internet.

The Global Industries official who called this reporter on phone commended the newspaper for its investigative capacity and said the families of the hostages have massed in the company's office and would like to know if the hostages were in good health when we met them, how they sleep and eat, whether there is any immediate danger to their lives among other things.

The company also wanted to know what the government was doing to secure freedom for the kidnapped quartet. But while the families were rejoicing that a Nigerian newspaper had, at last, established contact with their loved ones and that there is a silver lining in the sky, the militant group that kidnapped them issued a three-day ultimatum to the Chevron Nigeria Limited and government to sign agreement with them on development projects to be provided for the Ijaw people of Egbema or they would bomb three oil platforms.

A top official of the group who spoke to this paper warned that no attempt should be made to rescue the hostages by force or "something bloody" would happen.

A news report that they asked for N500 million before the hostages would be released was denied by the group, which said it was blackmail by some government agents. "Our demands have already been spelt out."

A day with militants, hostages in the creek

Hostages turn prayer warriors in the creek

IF the four American oil workers namely Chris Gay (anchor operator), Kevin Faller (barge foreman), Mike Roussel (anchor operator) and Larry Plake (anchor operator), all workers of Global Industries, an oil servicing company to the Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), who were seized, May 8, by armed militants in Delta state have the ability, like a chameleon, to change their skin texture, they would have done so in the last 20 days, to reduce to nothing at least, the "hostage value" attached to them by the militants who are holding them captive in their fortified hideout in the creek because of their white skin.

But they are not chameleons and so, cannot change their skin texture overnight. All they could do at the moment is to believe in the ability of God Almighty to meet them at the point of their need and continue to pray to Him to touch the hearts of their captors, the Niger Delta Freedom Fighters, aka Egbema One, to release them as soon as possible to rejoin their families and loved ones in America. None of them wants to stay back in Nigeria after their release, not with the way things stand now in the Niger-Delta region, at least in their own estimation.

All the four hostages have resorted to doing in the den, located in a swampy forest since they were captured, is pray without ceasing. Mike Roussel confirmed to Saturday Vanguard in the camp, last Thursday, that he was not the prayer warrior before now but since their present ordeal started, "I pray all day long. Yeah, all day long, I am talking to the Lord.

"We (four of them) are our own pastors, we pray very strong prayers, crying to God to deliver us from the hands of the militants", he asserted. Asked if the Holy Ghost had not come down to break the chains bounding them given the intensity of their prayers, he said: "You are right, the Holy Ghost ought to have come down by now but we are still praying, may be, He is looking at me now, as I am speaking to you".

Departure from Warri

The more than three-hour journey to the militants' hideout started at about 1.00 pm from the Warri waterside in Warri South local government area in a chartered speedboat. We did not get to the campsite until 4.40 p.m.

On the way, we sped past three speedboats, filled with soldiers, who were apparently on patrol in the creek but they did not interrupt our journey. Despite the fact that this reporter had travelled to the militants' camp in the past to interact with them and their hostages, the element of fear was still there.

However, the linkmen kept assuring one that there was no cause for alarm. I was served bread and corn beef when hunger was evident on me. God bless the driver of the speedboat who had a tarpaulin in his boat! Soon, the heavens opened up and rain would have beaten all of us silly if not for his hindsight.

As we passed the various oil communities on our route to the den, the scars of the attacks on oil installations in the creeks were still visible with virtually all the locations abandoned by the workers. The Lagos-Escravos pipeline remain shut down. The militants showed me some of the flow stations that were recently shattered by them.

Checkpoints by militants

Getting near to the camp, members of a militant group, maybe not as powerful as the Egbema One, were stationed in a speedboat, ostensibly waiting to collect toll from seamen. They actually beckoned on our team but one of the militants in our team muttered: "Small boys, una still dey here, una no dey fear, na we una want obtain?".

Not long after, we again ran into another checkpoint by the militants, mounted by a patrol team of the Niger Freedom Fighters. Our team paid obeisance to them before we now snaked through tapered waters to the den.

The base camp

As soon as I entered the speedboat in Warri, it was obvious to me that I was embarking on a journey of no retreat until the meeting with the hostages would have been over. But the same foreboding that eclipsed me when I visited the campground where the 24 Filipinos that were kidnapped, sometime ago, enveloped me all over. But then, there was nothing I could do, as I was face-to-face with militants who could do anything to me at the slightest provocation.

Those manning the camp had taken positions at strategic locations with rocket-propelled grenades, general purpose machine guns and other weapons to fire if the "intruders" were from the enemy camp. They soon realised it was their colleagues in the speedboat and lowered their weapons. I breathed a sigh of relief but all eyes were upon me. I felt them burrowing through my skin but I managed to keep a calm composure, as I jumped down from the speedboat.

Camp sacrament

No doubt, they were expecting Saturday Vanguard but some clearance still had to be done. I was not allowed inside until I performed the ritual of allowing myself to be sprinkled with a fetish concoction from a pot in front of the camp. Every visitor to the camp participates in the ritual, which I was told was for cleansing. I was ordered to wait in the border post outside but my linkmen, who are well-connected in the camp refused, saying that I should go with them.

Waiting for the commanding officer

I was taken to a location in the camp while consultation was being made with the commander of the Niger Delta Freedom Fighters, otherwise known as Egbema One on my arrival. Meanwhile, some of the militants started gathering around where I was sitting. As they all spoke in Ijaw language; I thought they were planning how to add me to the hostage list.

I was deep in thought when one of the spokesmen for the militants drew my attention to the fact that the commander, who he addressed as "my master" was already there and wanted to know what my mission was in the camp. I turned around to behold a young man I knew, by instinct, that I was older than. I told him I did not know he was the commander because I was expecting to see a much older and bulky person. He laughed and told me: "Well, you have seen me, I am the leader here." I introduced myself and my mission but that was not enough.

Promise of confidentiality

He said he had heard my explanation but would want a guarantee from me that I would not squeal the beans on them when I leave the camp. To ensure that I would not betray them to security agents, he said I would have to eat alligator pepper and some other unnamed things with them. I said I was ready to eat anything with them, and if they have eba, they should bring it out, but in any case, my word is my bond as a Christian.

I told them that the Almighty God, who is our creator, did not permit us to swear by anything, whether on earth or in heaven, and that they should just accept my word as my bond because I have been reporting the struggle for a long time. It took a lot of talking to win the confidence of the Commander and once that was done, he sat back to field questions from Saturday Vanguard.

Our grievances, by militants

In the main, the grouse of the militants was that the Chevron Oil Company, which is operating in the area, Egbema kingdom, an Ijaw territory in Warri North local government area has "neglected the people" in terms of employment and provision of social amenities like water, electricity and hospitals. They also think that the plausible way to draw the company and government's attention to their troubles was to kidnap foreign oil workers.

There was no doubt that Niger-Delta natives were suffering in the creeks. There, thousands of youths are without jobs and that is why they find it easy to enrol as guerilla fighters. There is no hospital. The seriously sick ones among them have to be taken on a not less than three-hour trip to Warri before they could get medical care and some of them had died during such trips. They also said that there are no schools for their children to attend in the creek. The enlightened youths among them are those that had the wherewithal to find their way to Warri and other cities in the country.

The four hostages who were later led out to chat with Saturday Vanguard lamented that the Niger-Deltans were living like animals in their homeland and one of them said he would join in the campaign for a better deal for the people of the region after his release.

Right of entry to the camp

Without doubt, it would be extremely difficult for the Joint Military Task Force on the Niger-Delta to access the camp because of the terrain. Only somebody who knows the swampy terrain can take you there or you would be caught in crossfire before you know it. Nevertheless, the natives freely pass the camp as they go about their fishing business but nobody comes into the camp without authorization.

Mood

The militants all seem to be committed to the cause they are fighting for. They go about their assignments in the camp with discernible discipline; they appear to be ready for confrontation at any time with the way they take position whenever any boat approaches the camp.

Time to exit

I heaved a sigh of relief at about 5.30 pm when my request to leave the camp after transacting the business that brought me there was granted. However, a new vista on the predicament of the natives dawned on me on our way back. As we hurried to get back to Warri, I was forced to reflect more introspectively when I saw parents and children in the mud-covered communities discussing in groups and waving at us, as we sped pass them, while smokes ascended the atmosphere from the fire with which they were preparing their evening meals. I wept inside, as I thought about running to Warri, where there is electricity, while some fellow Nigerians would soon be enveloped by darkness in the thick swampy terrain.

While some people are in the cities playing music, watching television and attending parties, the people in the creeks do not have such luxuries. I looked at their ramshackle homes, which people in other parts of the country would not use to house their domestic animals and I trembled at the level of denial and deprivation.

I got to Warri at about 8.45 pm but until the time of writing this report, the sheer knowledge that people have no potable water to drink in the creeks, that there is no electricity and that one could die on the way before he is rushed to any hospital in the city in a three-hour boat ride has kept bothering my sensibilities.

Our lives in the creeks, by the hostages

No, we can't drink their water 'cos it's awful -- Chris Gay

EVEN though they are being held captive, the hostages enjoy some good relationship of sort with the militants, as they freely interacted with them when they were called out to speak with Saturday Vanguard. But one thing was certain: they would not want to stay an hour longer than necessary in the den if they had the opportunity. Excerpts:

How are you coping in this environment that you now find yourself by accident of fate?

We're just trying to do our job over here in Nigeria and in the process, I found myself in this camp.

I mean, how are you surviving here in the camp at the moment?

Well, we are managing. There is nobody denied his freedom that will not be feeling it. I am feeling the burden and pain.

Have you been told why you were abducted?

Yes, they want job for their people, they want government to help them out. They are oil communities here and they want development. That is why we are being held.

Are they treating you people well?

They are not maltreating us; they have been nice to us

What of food, what kind of food do they serve you here?

We eat fish, canned food and we have bottled water

Don't you drink the water from the creek?

No, it is bad, we cannot drink that.

Do you know what eba or garri is, do you not eat it or they have not given you in the camp?

No, I don't eat it.

Who buys the bottled water for you because obviously it is not sold in this vicinity?

They buy them for us.

Who?

The guys holding us.

So, what would you want the American and Nigerian governments to do for you?

My appeal is to the Nigerian government to go ahead and give these people what they want (for them) to let us go. They are determined to get what they want and we don't want to be caught in the crossfire between them and security agents.

What is the state of your health right now?

I am not sick.

Have you people been praying for divine intervention?

Definitely, I pray every morning, afternoon and night

Has this predicament made you to think more about God?

Yes.

Do you think the agitation by the militants is genuine?

Genuine one, yes.

I hope you are not saying this because they are listening to the interview?

No.

Niger-Deltans are hungry, they need urgent help, says Mike Roussel

Do you know why you are here?

The people are starving; they want schools for their children, which are more important to them. They want jobs, they don't have money, just look at the water they bath with and drink, that tells you right away that something has to be done.

Where were you when you were kidnapped?

I was on the barge in the field working when it happened.

How are you feeding here?

We are okay, we are surviving. I feel fine, my health is okay.

What do you want the Nigerian government to do for you?

I want them to take us home to our families as soon as possible. I think they have to come here and help these people out and their children in particular. Everybody needs education because without education, you are nothing.

Do you have any assurance from the militants that they will not harm you people?

Yes, they told us that they will not harm us as long as the government listens to their demands.

But do you think they can be trusted?

I don't think that they have the intention of harming us. I believe them when they said that they don't want to harm us. But it is clear that if anybody comes here and tries to use force to free us without negotiating with them, they will harm us. In fact, we will be in the middle of the fire if anybody tries to do so. I want them to, please, discuss with them and get us out of here safely.

So, what is your prayer life like in the camp?

All day long, I am talking to the Lord.

Before now, were you praying like that?

No, I wasn't praying that much.

Okay, who is the pastor in the camp?

I guess we all pray as pastors.

When you pray such very strong prayers, the Holy Ghost is expected to come down, has He come down since you started?

That is right; He is supposed to come down. Well, I am talking to you now, may be, He is looking at me, I don't know.

Kevin Faller: Life here is awful

Kevin Faller is the only one of the four hostages who was visibly shaking when met by Saturday Vanguard. His voice also quivered, as he spoke. But he would, nonetheless, tell you that he's okay.

How do you feel in this strange environment?

We are learning to cope with things the way we have found them. I have learnt a lot of things since we were brought here.

What have you learnt?

The nature of how these people are being treated, how they have to survive. Everyone is a human being and not animals and these people deserve the good things of life. There is nobody who is treated like an animal the way things are happening here that will not be involved in their kind of struggle.

So, how do Niger Deltans survive from what you have learnt?

They are very poor, no schools, no hospitals, no road and so on. If anything happens, it will take a long time to get to the hospital and maybe, they would die before they get there.

What are your feelings when you see mothers and their children in those ramshackle houses that dot the communities?

It hurts to see all these things. It really hurts. No human being deserves to live the way Niger-Deltans are living. It's inhuman.

You are still able to smoke under this condition, is it to ease tension?

No, I have been smoking for years.

How do you get the cigarettes in the camp here?

They (militants) buy (them) for me.

Do you give them money to buy?

We don't have any money on us.

Meaning that they have not been treating you badly?

Yea, that's right.

What would you want the Nigerian government to do regarding your freedom?

They should give the people what they want so that they will free us.

If you are released tomorrow, are you still going to work in Nigeria?

Right now, I can't say. C'mon, until the situation becomes stable in the region, I don't see myself remaining here but I will help to promote the agitation of the people because I can see that they are suffering.

These folks deserve better treatment -- Larry Plake

How did you find yourself in this camp?

I was working with these gentlemen (fellow hostages) when the incident happened and they brought us to this place.

Do you eat here?

Yes, we're okay.

How is your health?

Smarter.

Do you know why you are here?

Yes, our stay in the creek has opened my eyes to the things we did not know about the suffering of the people before now. The militants have showed us a lot of things, which we didn't know before about the problems of the people. We have seen how they live and how they are treated, it is not right.

What are their sufferings that your eyes have been opened to?

They don't have anything. Even the little things that they have are sourced from their place. Take the houses they build, they fall trees in the forest to build their houses, the water they drink and bath with is the polluted creek water and the food they eat here is not what we can eat.

How are the militants treating you people in their camp?

They are taking care of us.

What do you make of their struggle?

It is a pretty genuine one.

What are your expectations?

I want the Nigerian government to understand their plight. I want those whose eyes are not opened on the real problem of the Niger-Delta to have their eyes really opened first so that they can see that a man does not have to live like this. They should have schools, hospitals, potable water, electricity and houses to live and not the ramshackle structures that they live in.

From AllAfrica.com.

lord have mercy.