BY FUND FOR PEACE, PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVES IN THE NIGER DELTA (PIND), PARTNERS FOR PEACE

The agitation for resource control in the Niger Delta developed a violent dimension between 2006 and 2009, when militant groups took over the struggle from the political elites and resorted to violence to express their grievances. The militants resorted to armed struggle with government security forces and triggered a reduction in oil production through kidnapping and hostage taking of expatriate and national oil workers, illegal oil bunkering, and vandalism of oil installations, until the Nigerian government secured a ceasefire through the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) in 2009. The PAP ended the insurgency and entitled some militant leaders to lucrative government security contracts to guide oil installations and monthly stipends, while others were provided with scholarships. But barely seven years after many of the militants accepted the PAP and dropped their arms, there has been a resurgence of militancy and violence in the region.