Nigeria Protesters Release 2 Hostages 

AP 20jul02

ABITEYE, Nigeria -- Unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities in southeastern Nigeria said Saturday they had freed their two hostages in return for a promise from oil executives to meet with them.

The women, who live nearby, are demanding jobs for their relatives as well as electricity, water and other amenities. The protest follows a larger but similar action at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal that involved hundreds of workers, including Americans, being held captive for 10 days. They were freed only after the company pledged to build modern towns out of poor villages.

As that protest was ending, several hundred women from a rival tribe seized at least four ChevronTexaco flowstations in the same area. On Friday, the women occupying the Abiteye station took two workers captive, both Nigerians. They were apparently the only employees who stayed behind after the protest action began.

One, a security supervisor, was released hours later and the other, a community relations officer, was allowed to leave Saturday. Far from appearing traumatized, he waved to the women, who cheered as he boarded a ferry.

Fanty Wariyai, a protest leader, said ChevronTexaco promised to send a senior official to meet with the women on Monday. ChevronTexaco officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The protest turned into a hostage-taking after ChevronTexaco angered the women by asking them to send representatives to a meeting with company officials and tribal leaders in the southern city of Warri.

``They want us to meet the community leaders who are men, who live in Warri, and who don't know our suffering,'' Josephine Ogoba, another protest leader, said Friday. ``If Chevron will not come here, we will not allow their staff to go.''

The peaceful, all-woman protests are a departure for the oil-rich Niger Delta, where armed men frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil companies to give them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged environmental damage.

The Niger Delta is one of the West African country's poorest regions, despite its oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.

ChevronTexaco Held by Women Demanding Better Conditions

SOLA ADEBAYO / Vanguard (Nigeria) 19ju02

WARRI, DELTA— The face-off between Ugborodo and Ugboegungun women and the management of Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) over the seizure of the Escravos tank farm continued Tuesday just as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) S.A.K. Foundation warned against the use of force to dislodge the women from the multi-billion naira crude oil loading facility.

The Itsekiri women groups from Warri South West local government council of Delta State seized the installation ten days ago to protest the alleged neglect of their communities by Chevron in the past 32 years of its operation in the areas.

Uptill now, the women of Ugborodo and Ugboegungun communities have shunned all pleas and entreaties for them to vacate the installation and return home.

The situation at CNL’s Escravos operation was worsened on Tuesday when another women group from Ijaw clan of Gbaramatu joined the fray by hijacking four oilflow stations located in their areas.

Both Ijaw and Itsekiri women groups have turned the CNL’s tank farm and flow stations into their temporary places of abode.

Respected indigenes of the state, including the state governor, Chief James Ibori and the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II have intervened in the unending feud to no avail.

Leader of the Ugborodo women, Madam Anunu Uwawah told Vanguard Tuesday that her kinsmen would not leave the facility until a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) stating their "gains" from the protest was signed by CNL management.

Meanwhile, S.A.K. Foundation, said it fully aligns with the plight of CNL’s host communities, warning that the agitation against the company might escalate.

President of the Foundation, Mr. Oritsejolomi Samuel at a news conference in Warri advised the federal government against a military option in dislodging the women.

Continuing, he said "no amount of intimidation and resort to military occupation can dampen the spirit of a true Ugborodo indigene. With the state of our natural resources it is clear that the treatment meted out to us is worse than what obtains against the Palestinians."

He added that "the Ugborodo community accounts for about 625,000 barrels of oil per day through the NNPC/Chevron joint venture, yet the community cannot boast of the basic infrastructure let alone a road to assess their community."

"Their ecological system has been destroyed by years of oil exploitation and left worsted with only the payment of lip service. Ironically, this is a community that has played host to Chevron for abut 30 years."

Poor Nigerian Women Occupy ChevronTexaco Oil Plants

D'ARCY DORAN / AP 18jul02

ESCRAVOS, Nigeria - Unarmed village women stormed five ChevronTexaco pipeline stations, as protests against the oil giant spread in southeastern Nigeria, participants said yesterday.

The occupations, which began July 8 and spread over the weekend to the five stations, are spurred at least in part by the crushing poverty in which villagers live amid the region's oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.

The women's protests are a departure for Nigeria, where armed men frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil multinationals into giving them jobs, protection money, or compensation for alleged environmental damage. Hostages generally are released unharmed.

Wole Agunbiade, a spokesman for ChevronTexaco's Nigeria subsidiary, could not confirm the latest takeovers.

Hundreds of unarmed women from the Ijaw tribe began capturing pipeline flowstations in boats this weekend, said Josephine Ogoba, a protest leader at a facility near the village of Abiteye. By Monday, they controlled five facilities, she said.

Employees at the Abiteye site were allowed to leave in helicopters on Monday, Ogoba said.

She did not know if any workers remained trapped inside the other facilities near the villages of Opueketa, Makaraba, Otunana, and Olero Creek, some 50 miles east of the company's multimillion-dollar Escravos export terminal.

A separate group of unarmed village women has been holed up at Escravos, ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal in the Niger Delta region.

Kingsley Kuku, spokesman for the Ijaw Youth Council, said the latest action was partly linked to tribal rivalry stirred up by the Escravos takeover. Although the protesters at Escravos include women from several different tribal groups, the core group is of the rival Itsekiri group.

Kuku said the Ijaw women want assurances from state government that their tribe would be granted favorable municipal boundaries separating their lands from Itsekiri areas.

He said Ijaws believe the women who raided the Escravos terminal are using their siege to pry government concessions in a years-long land dispute between Ijaws and Itsekiris.

''Our women are without fear. They are participating actively in our struggle and have embarked on this action without the use of arms, not even brooms,'' Kuku said.

He warned that Ijaw men would ''burn down all Chevron oil facilities'' if police or soldiers tried to forcibly remove the women or otherwise harm them.

Protesters at the Abiteye flowstation, however, said they were interested only in jobs and improved facilities for nearby villagers - not the land dispute.

Anino Olowu, a representative of the women inside Escravos, also denied yesterday their protest was linked to the dispute or to the Ijaws.

Tribal divisions nevertheless appeared to have emerged among the several hundred protesters at Escravos, who were refusing to leave the facility despite a verbal agreement to end their siege.

Olowu said the women were waiting for a final agreement to be signed with the company and for squabbles between Itsekiri women and protesters of other tribes to be resolved.

''We may leave tomorrow or leave the next day because there are members of other communities that do not cooperate with us that followed us inside [the terminal],'' Olowu said. ''They think that by joining us, they will have right to the land here.''

ChevronTexaco executives presented the women with a seven-page memorandum of understanding yesterday.

The two sides argued heatedly over the document inside the residence of a village chieftain in Ugborodo, about 100 yards across the river from Escravos.

The 10-day takeover trapped an initial 700 US, Canadian, British and Nigerian oil workers inside the terminal.

About 200 of them were allowed to leave on Sunday, and hundreds more departed in a ferry Tuesday morning, leaving just a few dozen trapped inside, protesters said.

After the verbal agreement was reached with the company Monday, the women permitted ChevronTexaco employees back into the facility's control room so they could load two tankers with offshore oil.

Women Storm More Nigeria Pipeline Stations

D'ARCY DORAN / AP 17ju02

ESCRAVOS, Nigeria –– Unarmed village women stormed four ChevronTexaco pipeline stations, as protests against the oil giant spread in southeastern Nigeria, tribal activists said Wednesday.

The occupations, which began July 8 and spread Tuesday to the four stations, are spurred at least in part by the crushing poverty in which villagers live amid the region's oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.

Tuesday's action also appears linked to tribal rivalry stirred up by the separate 10-day occupation of the Escravos facility, ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal in the Niger Delta region.

Although the protesters at Escravos include women from several different tribes, the core group is Itsekiri; the four latest takeovers were reportedly by women from the rival Ijaw tribe. The conflict is considered cultural rather than religious: These particular tribes are Christians and animists.

The women's protests are a departure for Nigeria, where armed men frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil multinationals into giving them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged environmental damage. Hostages generally are released unharmed.

The women, ranging in age from 30 to 90, used a traditional and powerful shaming gesture to maintain control over the Escravos facility after seizing it July 8 – they threatened to remove their own clothing. It was unclear whether the women were using this technique at the latest facilities.

Kingsley Kuku, spokesman for the tribal Ijaw Youth Council, said hundreds of Ijaw women captured four pipeline flowstations in boats Tuesday. An unknown number of employees at the sites were "allowed to leave," he said. He did not know if any workers remained inside.

Wole Agunbiade, a spokesman for ChevronTexaco's Nigeria subsidiary, could not confirm the reported takeovers.

Kuku said Tuesday's protests occurred near the villages of Opueketa, Abiteye, Makaraba and Otunana, some 50 miles east of the company's multimillion-dollar Escravos export terminal. A separate group of unarmed village women has been holed up at Escravos since sneaking inside on July 8.

"Our women are without fear. They are participating actively in our struggle and have embarked on this action without the use of arms, not even brooms," Kuku said.

He warned that Ijaw men would "burn down all Chevron oil facilities" if police or soldiers tried to forcibly remove the women or otherwise harmed them.

Lucky Lelekumo, a spokeswoman for the Ijaw women, was quoted in the daily Punch newspaper as saying the action was to draw attention to widespread poverty in villages with "nothing to show for over 30 years of the company's existence."

The women hoped to force the company to grant jobs and help improve living conditions in nearby villages, Kuku said.

But they also wanted assurances from state government that Ijaws would be granted favorable municipal boundaries separating the tribe's lands from rival Itsekiri areas, Kuku added.

The Ijaws believe the women who raided the Escravos terminal are using their siege to pry government concessions in a yearslong land dispute between Ijaws and Itsekiris, he said.

Anino Olowu, a representative of the women still inside Escravos on Wednesday, denied her protest was linked to the land dispute, or to the Ijaw action.

Tribal divisions also appeared to have emerged among the several hundred protesters at Escravos, who were refusing to leave the facility despite a verbal agreement to end their siege.

Olowu said the women were waiting for a final agreement to be signed with the company and for squabbles between Itsekiri women and protesters of other tribes to be resolved.

"We may leave tomorrow or leave the next day, because there are members of other communities that do not cooperate with us that followed us inside (the terminal)," Olowu said. "They are not Ijaws, but they are not with us. They think that by joining us, they will have right to the land here."

ChevronTexaco executives presented the women with a seven-page memorandum of understanding on Wednesday.

The two sides argued heatedly over the document inside the residence of a village chieftain in Ugborodo, about 100 yards across the river from Escravos.

The 10-day takeover trapped an initial 700 American, Canadian, British and Nigerian oil workers inside the terminal.

About 200 of them were allowed to leave on Sunday, and hundreds more departed in a ferry Tuesday morning, leaving just a few dozen trapped inside, protesters said.

After the verbal agreement was reached with the company Monday, the women permitted ChevronTexaco employees back into the facility's control room so they could load two tankers with offshore oil.

The unarmed women, some with babies bound to their backs, sang and danced on the facility's docks Monday when they learned the company had offered to hire at least 25 villagers over five years.

The company said it was also willing to build schools, provide water, electricity and a community center, and to help the women establish poultry and fish farms to supply the terminal's cafeteria.

The struggle between international oil firms and local communities in Nigeria drew international attention in the mid-1990s, when violent protests by the tiny Ogoni tribe forced Shell to abandon its wells on their land.

The late dictator Gen. Sani Abacha responded in 1995 by hanging nine Ogoni leaders, including writer Ken Saro Wiwa – triggering international outrage and Nigeria's expulsion from the British Commonwealth.