Normalcy Returns to Niger Delta After Attacks

Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta has return to normalcy after the region was troubled with attacks since 2006.

Nigeria’s President Omar Yar’ Adua offered amnesty to the militants in the Delta with an aim of bringing peace in the region in June this year.

More than 8000 soldiers laid down their weapon at a ceremony in Yenagoa, in the southern Delta region in August as they accepted the amnesty Offer.

The soldiers however maintained that despite the ceasefire they won’t welcome any association of illicit gangs involved in crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.

Nigerian military spokesman in the Niger Delta, Timothy Antigha says that the ceasefire by the militants, which is a result of the amnesty offered by the government, has reinstated stability in the troubled oil-rich region.

Wide spread insecurity in the oil-rich Niger region has caused Nigeria billions of dollars in terms of revenue in the past three years since investors were afraid to invest in the region.

Despite five decades of crude oil extraction in one of Africa’s richest oil exporters, people in the Niger delta still live in dire straits of poverty. [GR]