Militant group emerges at Cape Three Point

An anticipated oil war, akin to the many destabilization acts, recorded in oil find areas in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, Angola, Gabon and some of the troubled spots in the Arab world looms at Ghana's Cape Three Point and its environs, where there had been a latest discovery of oil in commercial quantity.

A group calling itself The CAPE MILITIA has emerged as the militant group posing as the official mouthpiece of mostly unemployed youth of the area who believe a large chunk of the oil proceeds should be used to develop first, the oil find area before the larger Ghanaian society.

They also claim their action will be the only way to mitigate the likely environmental hazards and other forms of casualties that inhabitants of the oil find areas are likely to encounter when the oil drilling starts.

"You realize that already as the oil companies have started polluting our sea with toxic substances and the only way to demand justice is to resort to militancy because through their actions and inactions, the Kosmos group and the others are just like the usual multinational oil companies that do not factor local inhabitants in their scheme of operation," a group member told Today newspaper.

Today discovered from underground moves that some youth of the area mostly from Cape Three Point, Busua, Dixcove, Prusi Akataye, Princess Town, Miema, Ajemra, Axim, through to Alomatuope and other villages along the Western Coastal area deploy daily on how to hit the nerve centre of the presidency in order for their concerns to be given the requisite attention it requires.

With the benefit of how often people within oil catchment areas in other parts of the world are often short-changed in the demand for their fair share of the oil proceeds, the group, the paper's findings established, are planning many militant destabilization acts to press home their demands.

The paper’s undercover reporter, who posed as a Nigerian reporter to the group with an interest in their cause, was shown the thatched hats at Busua in the Ahanta District where they store their ammunition and other military accoutrements that they plan to use in their destabilization acts.

"We cannot be taken for granted, we cannot sit here and watch our livelihood being destroyed by these self-seeking politicians, we will strike when the time arrives," a self-styled leader of the group warned.

According to the leader (name withheld), they hold their daily meetings at Agona Nkwanta, where they engage in the training and the use of fire arms at a village near the Ghana Rubber Estates Plantation at Nkwanta.

The group leader disclosed that they have identified some pipelines under the seabed and will soon start attacking them and threatened to start targeting rig and non-oil facilities, like bridges, buildings belonging to oil companies in the area if they are not assured of equal e opportunities.

"We will give a fore-warning to avoid casualties as our intent is to only bring down a those symbols of oppression and injustice," the rebel leader noted. "My brother this is the only way we can press home our demands: Western Region has suffered from decades of neglect, pollution, and underdevelopment," he blurred out with a choked voice.

The group leader said their concerns are corroborated by evidence of destruction of fishing nets of fisher folks of the area and the pollution of their source of drinking water since preparation for the oil find began.

Indeed the leader also recalled how the recent dumping of drilled mud in the sea caused by operators of the Jubilee field has created lots of environmental problems for the people living along the coast.

A fisherman, Opanyin Mbere, was sure that his children had joined the group because they had seen and felt the atrocities meted out to them by the find of the Black Gold.

"Now when I go to sea I have no catch because all the fishes are attracted by the lights from the rigs; then we are told not to fish along the rigs, how should I feed my family, if the cause of my children can bring some hope, huh am in full support," Opayin Mbere noted.

The first thing that strikes you on meeting members of CAPE MILITIA is the ease with which they communicate their problems and how they identify some probable solutions.

It was amazing, at least those elected to respond to questions, are articulate, well-educated, and conversant with the latest political developments at home and abroad.