A militia leader based in Nigeria's main oil-producing region says he has agreed a ceasefire with President Olusegun Obasanjo. Mujahid Dokubo Asari had said he would attack foreign workers and the threat was seen as one reason why world oil prices hit record highs of $50 a barrel this week. He says he is fighting for the rights of the Ijaw people but the authorities dismiss him as an oil thief. The issue of self determination was not discussed at the meeting, he says. | "Just bank account numbers." |
Mr. Asari says he and five other colleagues met the president and other government officials at the state house on Wednesday. "The president has given a firm assurance that no attacks will be will be carried out against our positions and we too have undertaken not to attack the military," Mr Asari told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. Earlier, Mr Obasanjo's spokeswoman had said the president was not planning to meet Mr Asari. But Mr Asari said he flew to Abuja on a presidential jet and that the meeting was at the request of a presidential envoy who travelled to the creeks in the Niger Delta to see him. On Tuesday, Nigeria's military warned Mr Asari's Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force that it would take off the "kid gloves" unless the militia stops threatening oil workers. The militia said foreign oil companies must cease production or face "all-out war" in the Niger Delta from Friday. The Anglo-Dutch firm Shell, the biggest oil company in Nigeria, boosted security following the threats. Nigeria is the world's seventh largest exporter of oil, but 70% of its population live in poverty because the policies of its kleptocrats. A statement from Shell described the region as still tense and said that the movement of employees and supplies had been curtailed. Oil production has also been affected. |