THE NEW YORK TIMES: Nigeria Oil Protest Turns Deadly (ShellNews.net) Posted 5 Feb 05
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- The army quelled a demonstration at one of Nigeria's main oil export terminals Friday, the platform's operator said, while activists accused the soldiers of killing four protesters.
Several other people were also injured when soldiers in the Escravos terminal opened fire on the demonstrators, said Helen Joe, a militant leader from the southern Niger Delta village of Ugborodo, the home of the protesters.
More than 200 demonstrators broke into Escravos on Friday and demanded that the ChevronTexaco-operated terminal, which has a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day, be shut down until more local people are hired.
They also demanded that ChevronTexaco fulfill promises it made after a similar protest in 2002, such as supplying new houses, water and electricity for Ugborodo.
The terminal, near the city of Warri, is key to OPEC member Nigeria's oil output of 2.5 million barrels per day, most of which is produced in the impoverished Niger Delta. Nigeria is the world's seventh largest oil exporter.
ChevronTexaco Corp. spokesman Femi Odumabo confirmed that security forces had intervened, but declined to comment on deaths or injuries. Odumabo also said the company would not negotiate with the protesters, as it did before.
``If the management cannot fulfill what has been negotiated, it is because it negotiated under duress,'' Odumabo said, adding that the local community had failed to honor a promise to guarantee a peaceful working environment.
Protests, ethnic violence and the kidnapping of oil workers are common in the Niger Delta, whose residents are among Nigeria's poorest, despite the riches pumped from their soil.
In November, soldiers opened fire on protesters at a Shell oil rig in Benisede village, also near Warri, and activists said seven demonstrators were killed. Shell says it is investigating the matter.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nigeria-Oil-Unrest.html