Niger Delta indigenes could become part-owners of oil facilities in the volatile region, if the Federal Government accepts a proposal by major oil companies.

The proposal came up at a meeting in Abuja yesterday of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream); the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed; and other stakeholders in the oil industry.

But while the meeting was under way, a group of Niger Delta insurgents said it was forging ahead with its "liberation struggle." That was barely 24 hours after another group called a ceasefire in its campaign of violence.

Reports had cited the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) as issuing a statement on Sunday night in which the group said it was suspending further attacks in the volatile region from midnight today (Tuesday) until further notice, in deference to appeals by elders to give peace and dialogue another chance. MEND, the umbrella group for militant squads in the Niger Delta, had taken responsibility for the attack last Thursday on the strategic Bonga oil field operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company.

But another group known as the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) yesterday spurned the threat of a military crackdown by the Federal Government, saying its armed campaign for socio-economic and environmental justice in the Niger Delta region was "a fight to finish."

President Umaru Yar’Adua had ordered the military and other security agencies to "do everything possible" to safeguard security in the region, following the attack on Bonga which cut Nigeria’s oil output by about 10 per cent.

Following the attack on Bonga oil field, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), chaired by Tam Brisibe, invited the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed; Minister of State (Petroleum), Mr. Odion Ajumogobia; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Sarki Mukhtar (rtd); Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Awoke Azazi; the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Alhaji Abubakar Yar’Adua; and Chief Executives of SPDC, Total, Chevron, Agip and Addax to appear before it yesterday.

Ahmed told the CDS had travelled overseas for another important meeting. The Minister of State (Petroleum) and the National Security Adviser were also not available. Most of the oil companies sent representatives.

House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole and the Defence minister declined press comments after the closed-door session. But the House committee chairman, Brisibe, in a post-meeting briefing said the enormity of the impact and implications of the attack on Bonga necessitated yesterday’s meeting. He also revealed that part of the suggestion by the oil companies was that local content in the oil companies be increased, and that part-ownership of assets be encouraged to assuage the militants.

He said the thinking was that if the region’s stakeholders were part-owners of the facilities, they wouldn’t destroy them.

Brisibe also said the attack on Bonga was a wake-up call to the nation as it shatters the illusion that off-shore facilities were safe from attacks. He added: "The event of Thursday, June 19, is not what anyone should take lightly."

According to him, the Minister of Defence, who would be attending another meeting later in the day, had said that a report on the situation would be sent to the committee.

The lawmaker said since the incident, security agencies had been gathering reports and investigations were still on. He said the committee was not in a position to give a conclusive briefing on the issue.

"Since Thursday, they have been gathering information as to what happened. There’s a report that will be presented. The Minister of Defence said this report will not just contain information on the incident, but will also comment on what they, as security agents, feel would stop such a thing from happening again," Brisibe said.

The spokesperson for JRC, Cynthia Whyte, who had earlier warned of the impending attack on the $3.6billion Bonga platform, said in a statement sent yesterday to our correspondent: "This fight is our fight; we will therefore fight it to the end by any means possible."

According to the JRC, the campaign by militants stemmed from the fact that while the Niger Delta provides sustenance for the Nigerian state, the oil-bearing communities continue to be neglected and despised. The group added: "The budget of the Nigerian state is prepared based on the price of a barrel of oil, all of which is harvested from the Niger Delta. How much of the oil windfall is channelled to the various host communities? Tell me? How long will this continue? How can we have so much oil and yet be so short-changed?"

The JRC which comprises some fighting units of MEND, the Reformed Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (R-NDPVF) and some other militia cells, said the attack on Bonga was carried out by a leading commander of the Niger Delta struggle with a strong link to MEND. "Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the staff of Shell and on-board workers at the Bonga FPSO, mercy and pity overcame him and he refused to deploy rocket-propelled weaponry against the offshore facility. Shell would have been counting greater losses now," the group added.

The attack on Bonga field, according to JRC, was to demonstrate the capacity of militants to inflict damage.

On why they attacked Bonga oil field when a Niger Delta Summit is in the pipeline, the group claimed that the highest-ranking representative of the aggrieved interests is the President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Kiser Okoko. "Go and find out from him whether the INC is principally involved in planning the summit. You may also go and find out the key participants that have been penned down for attendance. The whole thing stinks," it said.

On what should be done to resolve the crisis in the oil region, the JRC said: "We have raised the stakes a little higher, we demand total control of all our resources. But just before then, to make it easy for them, we demand a sovereign national conference where the various nationalities that were forcefully conscripted into the Nigerian state must be allowed to state if they would like to remain in this contraption called Nigeria."