Niger Delta Leaders OK Summit On Ending Oil Facility Attacks
Monday June 30th, 2008 / 23h39
ABUJA (AFP)--Leaders in the restive Niger Delta have agreed to government-backed talks aimed at halting attacks that have cut Nigeria's oil production by almost a quarter, an official statement said on Monday. Governors and ethnic leaders from the region reached the decision after weekend talks in Abuja with Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, where they also rejected former U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari as a mediator, a statement said. "After lengthy deliberations, the Niger Delta leaders agreed to a summit, but rejected Gambari as its chair," a statement from Jonathan's office said. The appointment of Gambari, a Nigerian diplomat who was until two weeks ago U.N. envoy to Myanmar, had drawn criticism from those angry at some of his past utterances on issues related to the region. Gambari was specifically accused of defending the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa, an environmental activist from the Delta who was hanged by the dictatorial regime of General Sani Abacha. He also drew flak for painting the summit as a national phenomenon rather than something more directly related to the people of the Niger Delta. It wasn't clear if a replacement would be installed as chair before the summit was expected to get under way sometime in July. The Nigerian government has been planning the long-delayed event since President Umaru Yar'Adua came to power last year. Oil companies and their personnel are being increasingly targeted by armed groups who have stepped up kidnappings and sabotage in the region in the past two years. Last month, Nigeria's most prominent militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or
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