Niger Delta Avengers end cease-fire in oil region, says report

The Nigerian militant group Niger Delta Avengers said on Friday that they had ended their cease-fire in the oil-rich southeasterly region.
Attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta in 2016 cut Nigeria’s oil production from a peak of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to near 1 million bpd, the lowest level seen in Africa’s top oil producer in at least 30 years.
Nigeria relies on crude oil sales for two-thirds of government revenue and most of its foreign exchange. Attacks in the Delta helped to push Africa’s largest economy into recession in 2016. It emerged in the second quarter of this year, mostly due to increased oil production. The militants want a larger share of Nigeria’s oil wealth to go to the impoverished southern swampland region.
Cash fraud
Nigeria’s former national security adviser on Friday denied illegally channeling money meant for the fight against Boko Haram to fund Goodluck Jonathan’s failed re-election campaign.
Sambo Dasuki told the Federal High Court in Abuja that he “did not enter into an unlawful act with respect to any transaction” with Olisa Metuh, who is on trial for corruption.
Metuh, the former spokesman for Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is accused of receiving 400 million nairas ($1.1 million) from Dasuki before the 2015 vote.
The money allegedly came from defense funds earmarked to buy weapons and equipment for the Nigerian military tackling the militants in the country’s remote northeast.
Both Dasuki, who is on trial separately accused of sending the defense cash to other prominent PDP members, and Metuh have said Jonathan was aware of the transactions. But the former head of state, whose wife and other close family members are facing claims of graft, is not thought to have been questioned.

Source:Arabnews