"Nigeria Video Shows Differences With Official View Of Army Attack" Published 07 Feb, 2011

 Written by Benoit Faucon, London

Apparent discrepancies have emerged with the official army version of a Dec. 1 military attack in a Niger Delta village. A confidential video seen by Dow Jones Newswires suggests a skirmish with militants--used by the army to explain local civilian deaths--actually took place in a different place and hours earlier. 

 The video document is an example of issues between villagers and the military in Africa's largest oil basin, where militants and disgruntled locals have sabotaged pipelines. The official version given by a spokesman said the army responded to militant fire emanating from the community of Ayakoromo, and that most of the dead were gunmen. The incident in Delta state, which is home to oil terminals exporting nearly half of Nigeria's output, received widespread coverage at the time, although the soldiers'candid accounts haven't been made public before.

 The statements of military personnel involved in the attack, taken two days later as they were confronted by locals amid the charred ruins of the village, shows most of the dead were killed in a different location than the skirmish with militants.

When asked by villagers why the army shot at them, a commander in charge of the operation said: "Immediately when we passed Gbekubu [on the way] to Ayakoromo, there was heavy fire." Gbekubu is located about two kilometers from Ayakoromo.

 General Charles Omoregie, who heads the army Joint Task Force also asks locals: "The dead, was it the result of crossfire?" The response of a community leader is unequivocal: "It [the skirmish] was outside" the community of Ayakoromo.

The village leader tells the general the army entered the community hours after the skirmish. He says that "after two hours [following the ambush], the thing went up" in Ayakoromo, which is also spelt Ayakoromor. In the video, army officials didn't challenge the remarks.

New unrest in Nigeria could add to oil supply fears after turmoil in Egypt pushed prices above $100 a barrel last week, rekindling concerns over a new global economic recession.

But the existence of the video statements also shows the army's efforts to come clean about its operations in the Delta. The army doesn't normally allow access to locations which have recently been the scene of military operations.

As soldiers arrived at Ayakoromo's jetty, they came across Efoli Oyabrade, an 82-year-old retired fisherman and father of 17, according to his son Ebi and other villagers. Oyabrade was unable to flee due to his age, his son said. Today, Oyabrade's body lies between the delapidated walls of a local mortuary, his body covered in flies, the video shows. But although dead, his body tells a story: his skull bears two neat, gaping bullet holes.

No evidence has surfaced backing claims of "genocide" made by the very militants whose actions triggered the operation.

But the army spokesman maintains "two or three [dead] may have been civilians caught in the cross-fire" and the rest militants. However, in the video, the officer says:"Everybody was there when you dig the grave" with the number of those buried "making seven." That suggests at least seven died in the community--where no militants were at the time. Indeed, locals say all the dead were all unarmed inhabitants--seven buried on the spot and two, including Oyabrade, sent to the mortuary.

Yet the very existence of a video where soldiers are taken to book, is itself an extraordinary act of accountability. "We have no fire with Ayakoromo, I beg you!" General Omoregie is seen as telling locals.