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Deployment of US Troops to Safeguard Oil in Nigeria Opposed

from Okon Bassey in Port Harcourt

The Federal Government has been warned of the danger of allowing foreign security to mount security at Oil Installations in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The caution, according to the Nigerian Institute of Industrial Security (NIIS) came on the heels of the plan by the United States to deploy its troops to safe-guard Oil Platform in the Oil Producing Communities in the country.

THISDAY checks revealed that insecurity in the region has been advanced as the major motivating factor for the proposed deployment of the American troops in the area, which is presently pending the Federal Government of Nigeria green light.

But the Council of the Nigerian Institute of Industrial Security in a protest letter with ref. No. NIIS/NA/261/03 and dated June 30, 2003 to President Olusegun Obasanjo staunchly opposed to the plot saying such gesture will spell disastrous consequences for the nation’s security.

The letter signed by the Director General of NIIS, Dr. M.O. Ollorwi copied the Senate President, Speakers of the House of Representatives and State Assembly admonished that the American Government cannot be responsible for the day-to-day protection of oil installations in the Niger Delta or else in Nigeria.

Condemning in totality the widespread violence in the Niger Delta in particular and Nigeria in general, the Institute argued that the responsibility for the protection of lives and property lies with the federal government of Nigeria, whose primary purpose is the "Security and Welfare of the people"