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Anonymous
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"The Gods are angry. Chevron needs to compensate us for this land. The women leave, and two days later, this thing happens," said unemployed villager Lucky Mune, as he watched the blaze from a distance.
http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20020720140.6_50fa000d0e771647
ESCRAVOS, Nigeria (AP) A huge fire broke out Saturday at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal, just days after unarmed village women ended a 10-day siege that crippled the oil giant's Nigeria operations.
The blaze at the multimillion-dollar Escravos terminal in southeastern Nigeria was ignited by a bolt of lightning during an early morning storm, the company said in a statement.
The lightning set fire to a storage tank containing about 180,000 barrels of crude oil, the company said. About 80,000 barrels were pumped out of the burning tank.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Company firefighters were "fully deployed" to contain the blaze, and additional support had been requested from other oil operators, the statement said.
The fire sent giant flames and a towering pillar of black smoke into the sky.
"The Gods are angry. Chevron needs to compensate us for this land. The women leave, and two days later, this thing happens," said unemployed villager Lucky Mune, as he watched the blaze from a distance.
The fire was the latest blow to a company still facing a series of takeovers at its Nigerian facilities by unarmed village women.
Meanwhile Saturday, unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities in southeastern Nigeria said Saturday they had freed their two hostages in return for a promise from oil executives to meet with them.
The women, who live nearby, are demanding jobs for their relatives as well as electricity, water and other amenities. The protest follows a larger but similar action at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal that involved hundreds of workers, including Americans, being held captive for 10 days. They were freed only after the company pledged to build modern towns out of poor villages.
As that protest was ending, several hundred women from a rival tribe seized at least four ChevronTexaco flowstations in the same area. On Friday, the women occupying the Abiteye station took two workers captive, both Nigerians. They were apparently the only employees who stayed behind after the protest action began.
One, a security supervisor, was released hours later and the other, a community relations officer, was allowed to leave Saturday. Far from appearing traumatized, he waved to the women, who cheered as he boarded a ferry.
Fanty Wariyai, a protest leader, said ChevronTexaco promised to send a senior official to meet with the women on Monday. ChevronTexaco officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The protest turned into a hostage-taking after ChevronTexaco angered the women by asking them to send representatives to a meeting with company officials and tribal leaders in the southern city of Warri.
"They want us to meet the community leaders who are men, who live in Warri, and who don't know our suffering," Josephine Ogoba, another protest leader, said Friday. "If Chevron will not come here, we will not allow their staff to go."
The peaceful, all-woman protests are a departure for the oil-rich Niger Delta, where armed men frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil companies to give them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged environmental damage.
The Niger Delta is one of the West African country's poorest regions, despite its oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.
.....................................................................................................
An interesting 'coincidence', especially as Nigeria is home to the Yoruba lightning deity Shango
http://65.107.211.206/post/nigeria/yorubarel.html
'If any one stole from any other Yoruba, Shango would ask GOD to command THUNDER to strike that individual down. this happened so often that the people started calling him Shango Lord of Thunder.'
from http://www.nubacom.com/21CenturyYoruba/sango.htm
http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20020720140.6_50fa000d0e771647
ESCRAVOS, Nigeria (AP) A huge fire broke out Saturday at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal, just days after unarmed village women ended a 10-day siege that crippled the oil giant's Nigeria operations.
The blaze at the multimillion-dollar Escravos terminal in southeastern Nigeria was ignited by a bolt of lightning during an early morning storm, the company said in a statement.
The lightning set fire to a storage tank containing about 180,000 barrels of crude oil, the company said. About 80,000 barrels were pumped out of the burning tank.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Company firefighters were "fully deployed" to contain the blaze, and additional support had been requested from other oil operators, the statement said.
The fire sent giant flames and a towering pillar of black smoke into the sky.
"The Gods are angry. Chevron needs to compensate us for this land. The women leave, and two days later, this thing happens," said unemployed villager Lucky Mune, as he watched the blaze from a distance.
The fire was the latest blow to a company still facing a series of takeovers at its Nigerian facilities by unarmed village women.
Meanwhile Saturday, unarmed women occupying at least four ChevronTexaco facilities in southeastern Nigeria said Saturday they had freed their two hostages in return for a promise from oil executives to meet with them.
The women, who live nearby, are demanding jobs for their relatives as well as electricity, water and other amenities. The protest follows a larger but similar action at ChevronTexaco's main oil terminal that involved hundreds of workers, including Americans, being held captive for 10 days. They were freed only after the company pledged to build modern towns out of poor villages.
As that protest was ending, several hundred women from a rival tribe seized at least four ChevronTexaco flowstations in the same area. On Friday, the women occupying the Abiteye station took two workers captive, both Nigerians. They were apparently the only employees who stayed behind after the protest action began.
One, a security supervisor, was released hours later and the other, a community relations officer, was allowed to leave Saturday. Far from appearing traumatized, he waved to the women, who cheered as he boarded a ferry.
Fanty Wariyai, a protest leader, said ChevronTexaco promised to send a senior official to meet with the women on Monday. ChevronTexaco officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The protest turned into a hostage-taking after ChevronTexaco angered the women by asking them to send representatives to a meeting with company officials and tribal leaders in the southern city of Warri.
"They want us to meet the community leaders who are men, who live in Warri, and who don't know our suffering," Josephine Ogoba, another protest leader, said Friday. "If Chevron will not come here, we will not allow their staff to go."
The peaceful, all-woman protests are a departure for the oil-rich Niger Delta, where armed men frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil companies to give them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged environmental damage.
The Niger Delta is one of the West African country's poorest regions, despite its oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.
.....................................................................................................
An interesting 'coincidence', especially as Nigeria is home to the Yoruba lightning deity Shango
http://65.107.211.206/post/nigeria/yorubarel.html
'If any one stole from any other Yoruba, Shango would ask GOD to command THUNDER to strike that individual down. this happened so often that the people started calling him Shango Lord of Thunder.'
from http://www.nubacom.com/21CenturyYoruba/sango.htm