A militant coalition in oil-rich southern Nigeria Wednesday threatened attacks against petroleum companies unless they find work for what the activists say are 250,000 jobless graduates.
Samuel Ebiye, spokesman for the group, which calls itself the Grand Alliance for Niger Delta, said the oil companies were in an August 28 letter given until September 7 to choose between offering graduates employment or facing disruption of their operations.
Ebiye, speaking at a press conference in Port Harcourt, said the Alliance includes all the major militant groups in the Delta. It is headed by an individual known as General Abiye Toru.
"We took a census of the unemployed graduates in the region and found that there were over 250,000 youths qualified in various fields of specialisation in the oil and gas sector," Ebiye told reporters.
He accused the oil companies of claiming wrongly that they are unable to find enough local graduates and that they are therefore obliged to bring in foreigners and Nigerians from other parts of the country.
"It is a grave injustice for the Niger Delta graduates to be unemployed in the midst of plenty," he continued.
Industry sources said the numbers put forward by the group were far-fetched.
At least 30 militants from the Alliance attended the conference, apparently without interference from the military deployed on the streets of the town, an AFP reporter said.
Ebiye did not indicate what form the threatened attacks would take.
The Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's vast oil wealth, has been plagued for the past several years with violence and kidnappings by both militants and criminal gangs.
More than 200 foreigners -- mostly oil workers -- have been kidnapped since the beginning of 2006 in the region. Most have been released after a few days or weeks in captivity, often with a ransom paid.
In recent weeks the elderly parents and small children of wealthy Nigerians have increasingly been targeted by the kidnappers.
The unrest in the region has led to about a quarter of the country's 2.6 million barrels-per-day output being cut.
Samuel Ebiye, spokesman for the group, which calls itself the Grand Alliance for Niger Delta, said the oil companies were in an August 28 letter given until September 7 to choose between offering graduates employment or facing disruption of their operations.
Ebiye, speaking at a press conference in Port Harcourt, said the Alliance includes all the major militant groups in the Delta. It is headed by an individual known as General Abiye Toru.
"We took a census of the unemployed graduates in the region and found that there were over 250,000 youths qualified in various fields of specialisation in the oil and gas sector," Ebiye told reporters.
He accused the oil companies of claiming wrongly that they are unable to find enough local graduates and that they are therefore obliged to bring in foreigners and Nigerians from other parts of the country.
"It is a grave injustice for the Niger Delta graduates to be unemployed in the midst of plenty," he continued.
Industry sources said the numbers put forward by the group were far-fetched.
At least 30 militants from the Alliance attended the conference, apparently without interference from the military deployed on the streets of the town, an AFP reporter said.
Ebiye did not indicate what form the threatened attacks would take.
The Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's vast oil wealth, has been plagued for the past several years with violence and kidnappings by both militants and criminal gangs.
More than 200 foreigners -- mostly oil workers -- have been kidnapped since the beginning of 2006 in the region. Most have been released after a few days or weeks in captivity, often with a ransom paid.
In recent weeks the elderly parents and small children of wealthy Nigerians have increasingly been targeted by the kidnappers.
The unrest in the region has led to about a quarter of the country's 2.6 million barrels-per-day output being cut.