Armed militants seize oil platform after leader is held

Armed with assault rifles, the gang invaded the Idama platform operated by Chevron in the southern Niger Delta, escalating a simmering political crisis in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter.

"Eight boats, each carrying 15 armed people, occupied the Idama flow station. Six government security forces had their weapons taken from them," a source close to Chevron said. "Apparently the militants are now heading for more stations. The situation can only get worse."

Only about 8,000 barrels per day were affected at Idama, a company source said, but industry officials said the impact of unrest could rise dramatically if security worsened.

Chevron officials were not available for comment.

Militants loyal to Mujahid Dokubo-Asari burned tyres in the streets of the delta's largest city, Port Harcourt. Police fired shots in the air to disperse them.

Mr Asari's Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) threatened on Tuesday to cause mayhem and close oil facilities in the delta, which pumps all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels per day, unless their leader was released.

Royal Dutch Shell removed non-essential staff from one of its platforms, but a senior industry source said the 70,000 barrels-a-day output would be maintained by a skeleton staff.

Oil prices are near record highs because of hurricane damage in the United States, and any disruption to exports from Nigeria would make the situation more precarious.

Mr Asari campaigns for self-determination by his Ijaw tribe, the largest in the delta, and argues that the colonial treaties that created the union with Nigeria were fraudulent.

The government has called him an oil thief and gangster.

The NDPVF had demanded his release by noon on Wednesday, but the Abuja high court yesterday granted a request by the justice minister to detain him for two weeks to prepare charges of treason, carrying the death penalty.

Police brought Mr Asari to the court briefly. "If this is what [the president] claims is democracy, it is the highest dictatorship," Mr Asari said.

A spokesman for NDPVF said: "The provocation did not come from Asari but from the Nigerian state. If anything happens, they should not hold us responsible. He has supporters everywhere. We cannot control them."

Despite its oil industry, most inhabitants of the delta live in poverty and feel cheated out of their wealth. Their resentment fuels armed conflict, sabotage of oil installations, kidnappings of oil workers and oil theft.

Last year, Mr Asari and thousands of his followers fought gun battles with troops from rebel hideouts in the creeks near Port Harcourt, until a peace deal was signed which gave him amnesty in return for disarmament.