US embassy cable - 04LAGOS1163

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 001163 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON AND PARIS PASS TO AFRICA WATCHERS 
DIA/J2 PASS TO GHAYES 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, PINR, EPET, EINV, PHUM, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA - GANGS OF PORT HARCOURT 
 
REF: A. ABUJA 972 
     B. LAGOS 1131 
 
Classified By: JOSEPH GREGOIRE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B), (D), AND (E) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY. Recent gang fighting in the Port Harcourt 
area of the Niger Delta highlights yet another brand of 
violence in Nigeria (ref A). Reports from oil services and 
construction company security managers in the field estimate 
that up to 100 people may have died over three to four days 
of fighting last week. As witnessed in that fighting, once 
unleashed, the gangs of Port Harcourt become difficult to 
control, and pose a risk of collateral damage to both local 
residents and the area's oil services and shipping 
industries.  In other areas of the South and North, simmering 
ethnic and religious tensions exacerbate struggles for power 
and resources that sometimes become deadly.  But in the 
southern city of Port Harcourt, violence is often perpetrated 
by gangs originally formed as political enforcers during the 
1999 and 2003 elections.  These armed gangs have taken on the 
combined roles of vigilantes and guns for hire.  Americans do 
live and work in Port Harcourt, but to date, we are not aware 
of any Americans killed or injured in this strand of 
violence.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (C) Deadly clashes between rival gangs in the areas around 
Port Harcourt in the last week of May (ref B) highlight a 
brand of violence unique to this area of the Delta. 
Political heavyweights in Rivers State are said to have 
sponsored enforcer gangs to defend their positions and 
suppress their rivals. The gangs are well-armed and have 
grown in power and belligerence.  We can identify several of 
the gangs and their roots, and it seems two in particular, 
the Ateke Boys and the Bush Boys, are the central enforcers 
of Port Harcourt's thug-based rivalries. 
 
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The Ateke Boys: Governor Odili's Vigilantes 
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3. (C) It is speculated that immediately following the 1999 
general elections that ushered in a new hope for democracy in 
Nigeria, as well as the rising clout of the president's 
People's Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Peter Odili, the then 
new PDP governor of Rivers State, sought to solidify his 
party's power base and eliminate any footholds maintained by 
the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).  Dr. Abiye 
Sekibo, the present federal Minister of Transport, was 
Odili's state secretary at the time, and is said to have put 
together a gang of armed thugs loyal to the governor and the 
PDP, financed by State and/or party funds.  These enforcers 
were deployed to ANPP strongholds in Rivers State, and 
targeted Chief Rufus Ada George, the former Abacha regime 
governor of Rivers State for whom Odili worked as deputy 
governor prior to the 1999 elections. 
 
4. (C) Over time these Odili-backed thugs grew in power and 
boldness.  It is said they refused to give up their arms, and 
continued to operate in groups as vigilantes and mercenaries, 
willing to commit even murder for hire.  The most notorious 
of these groups is led by a man called Ateke Tom, and became 
known as the Ateke Boys (a sub-set is known also as the 
Icelanders).  Dennis Amachree, Halliburton's security manager 
who hails from a village at the center of the recent clashes, 
told us in January 2004 that the Ateke Boys rigged the 1993 
polls in favor of the PDP and intimidated those who favored 
other candidates.  Some say the Ateke Boys have since been 
considered outlaws by the Rivers State and federal 
governments.  Amachree, however, alleges that when reports of 
excessive violence by the Ateke Boys caused the Inspector 
General of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to send a team of 
investigators to arrest members of the gang and take them to 
Abuja, the Rivers State government intervened, convincing the 
NPF that the Ateke Boys were necessary vigilantes helping 
maintain law and order in the remote villages of the Niger 
Delta region.  Amachree described the Rivers State NPF 
Command as frustrated, prevented by the leaders of the state 
government from taking action as the police watch the Ateke 
Boys flaunt their weapons and criminal activities. 
 
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The Bush Boys: Former Governor Protects Himself 
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5. (C) It is believed that former Rivers State governor Rufus 
Ada George sponsors a group of thugs of his own, known as the 
Bush Boys, to protect himself and his interests in the Port 
Harcourt area.  Ada George was once arrested and detained by 
Odili, and appears to have decided to fight fire with fire. 
The Bush Boys, sometimes referred to as the Amadi-Ama Boys, 
periodically clash with the Ateke Boys over control of 
villages around Port Harcourt, and some 50 people are said to 
have died in such fighting in January. 
 
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Asari Gang: Rivalry Leads to Recent Violence 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
6. (C) During the 2003 elections, a vigilante group allegedly 
under the direction of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, the President of 
the Ijaw Youth Council, is said to have run similar 
intimidation and vote rigging schemes as the Ateke Boys, also 
on behalf of the PDP.  A growing rivalry between the Asari 
gang and the Ateke Boys came to a head earlier this year over 
an attempt by the Ateke Boys (on behalf of a state government 
commissioner) to displace the traditional ruler of the area 
known as Kalibariland, west of Port Harcourt.  The Ateke Boys 
moved into the town of Buguma after bloody clashes and 
"occupied" it for several months.  The Asari gang retaliated 
in late May (ref B), calling in reinforcements from the Ijaw 
community and possibly the Bush Boys to displace the Ateke 
Boys. 
 
7. (C)  Managers from TSKJ construction company, a consortium 
led by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, told 
us on May 28 that it suspended its boat traffic along the 
Bonny River and around Port Harcourt for the weekend in 
anticipation of the ongoing violence and possible response 
from the Nigerian Navy.  Company managers were particularly 
concerned that the violence could escalate with an alliance 
among the Asari gang, the Bush Boys, and unaligned Ijaw 
fighters.  They also were concerned that Governor Odili might 
support the Ateke Boys, fueling the fight and possibly 
shutting down river traffic.  On June 2, news reports and oil 
services company sources indicated that President Obasanjo 
ordered Navy, Army and Mobile Police (MOPOL) assets deployed 
to Buguma and its environs to stabilize the situation, and 
Governor Odili urged the town's fleeing residents to return 
home and remain calm. 
 
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Naming Rites: International Smorgasbord 
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8. (C) We have also heard of a number of other gangs 
operating in and around Port Harcourt under names such as the 
Italian Boys and the German Boys.  Their sponsors are yet 
unknown to us (as are the roots of their monikers), but the 
gangs seem to be involved in semi-organized criminal 
enterprises such as car theft rings and armed robberies. 
Toyota 4X4 trucks driven by many oil service companies are 
favorite targets. 
 
9. (C) COMMENT.  It seems Governor Odili of Rivers State took 
the same step to try to solidify his power base as other 
politicians and opportunists have done in other parts of the 
Delta; he armed a group of disenfranchised youths and paid 
them for their loyalty.  And as we have seen in the conflicts 
around Warri, once these disenfranchised and disillusioned 
youths taste the power that comes from the barrel of a gun, 
it is impossible to convince them to give it up, and 
extremely difficult to keep them under control.  Odili's 
thugs appear to have splintered, and are now fighting each 
other under the patronage of others.  The governor of Rivers 
State may have reached a crossroads; because the state 
government has a vital interest in maintaining peace and 
commercial security in and around Port Harcourt, he may be 
forced to stop backing the Ateke Boys and let the police and 
federal forces clean up the area, if they can.  As said by 
Halliburton's Amachree, "the government has created monsters 
that it cannot control."  But control of the waterways of 
Port Harcourt and Bonny River is essential to maintaining 
shipping and oil services operations in the Delta.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
HINSON-JONES