A foreign investigative journalist, Jeff Zengele and Nigerian writer in self exile Joe Amadi have exposed the bloody and dirty deals and Machiavellian politics of America, Nigerian government and militants in the crude oil business and illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta Gulf of Guinea and the deadly oil dealers and marketers in the Togo Triangle where stolen crude is sold to foreign oil cartels.
Their jointly written book “Ghosts of the Niger Delta” released by Amazon on Kindle only for now is already circulating around the globe.
The following is an extract from their book which they said may be banned by the current Nigerian government.
In 2005, the United States conducted a war gaming exercise called the Oil Shockwave. It was conceived and conducted by energy think-tanks in conjunction with the National Commission on Energy Policy and Securing America’s Future Energy. The first scenario involved the outbreak of violence in the oil-producing area of Nigeria that would lead to evacuation of expatriates, including US citizens, and hike in oil prices. Nigeria is the eighth largest oil exporter in the world and the fourth largest exporter of crude oil to the US.
Six months after the exercise, massive bomb explosions at major oil facilities announce the commencement of violence in Nigeria and resonate around the world.
John Hunter, The News Hub newspaper’s award-winning investigative reporter, who reluctantly undertakes an assignment to investigate pollution in the Niger Delta, is held captive in a death camp with an American environmentalist, Jones Coleman, when it all starts. Jones is the son of a powerful US Senator.
After being made to bury some of the inmates tortured to death, the duo plan for their turn to die when the camp is attacked at night by some armed youths.
Jones dashes back to the US, and as Hunter recovers in Lagos from the torture, the Niger Delta makes headline news when several armed attacks target oil facilities and many expatriates are taken hostage by militants. This inhibits oil production and immediately impacts the global oil marketplace. Crude oil prices soar, and oil companies and consumers panic.
Hunter rushes back to the region, which is under the siege of angry militants: bombing, shooting, and hostage-taking become routine—and the attacks grow with intensity on a daily basis.
After a succession of encounters with representatives of oil companies, security agencies, and angry residents, Hunter eventually tracks the militant commanders down at one of their camps. Staring death in the face, he is detained for three days. The cold hands of death draw closer when he is later embedded with the militants during an attack of a major oil facility. Hunter is shocked by their efficiency and their large cache of sophisticated weapons.
With the government’s inability to squelch the violence, oil companies withdraw more of their staff members from the fields, and further reduce crude oil production. Hunter’s mission to expose the corruption and exploitation that have led to and resulted from the Niger Delta crisis, makes him a target of many powerful people, including oil thieves, arms dealers, corrupt government officials and politicians. He is followed and attacked at every turn, but he remains undaunted and determined.
Suspicious of the connection between the 2005 Oil Shockwave exercise and the crisis in the Niger Delta, Hunter infiltrates a meeting of an oil company’s crisis management team. Afterwards, he tracks one of the foreign speakers to a hotel and discovers he is Williams, a brother of Jones Colemen, who is not really an oil company representative, but an intelligence operative. They later become friends, compare notes, and work in close collaboration, exposing Hunter to the interest of the US in the crisis.
The crisis escalates, taking a heavy toll on lives, property, and the environment, which is devastated by oil spills. Over half of the country’s production of oil and gas is shut down, leading to a drastic reduction in government revenue. Meanwhile, the international oil market remains on edge—just as was predicted by the American war-gaming exercise. But Hunter is also shocked by his discovery of massive corruption by Nigerian government officials and the oil companies.
Hunter is worried that government does not care about the people in the region nearly as much as it cares about the revenue from crude oil exports. He is touched by the experience of a young lady, named Lucy, he had once helped. …
