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Old 25th Mar 2007, 13:33
  #1738 (permalink)  
MamaPut
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Jankara
Age: 63
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Thumbs down The Calm Before the Storm?

After a period of relative quiet, things in Port Harcourt have started to hot up again. A few days ago a well co-ordinated attack was carried out on the camp of German construction company Bilfinger Berger. Although it's reported that the MOPOL ran away (as usual ) the Joint Task Force troops there helped to stave off the attack. It also helped that BB have strong additional security measures in place (which I won't discuss here). The gunfight is reported to have lasted for 3 hours and sadly, the militants managed to capture the company's Dutch security manager, who is still being held hostage.

I see that the governor of Rivers State has suddenly started to use his AW139 as the election date drwas closer. I wonder if the people in the villages he visits, with lousy roads, schools, hospitals stop to wonder how nuch could have been done for their communities with the millions of dollars wasted on this symbol of extravagance?

There are more and more fixed wing operations into the NAF Base Port Harcourt and with the abysmal level of ATC there, most pilots have to take a lot of extra fuel in case of delays. As FW are always given priority it's not uncommon for a FW to declare himself to be on right base as he passes overhead the POT VOR and helicopters then to be kept waiting the 6 or 7 minutes until it's landed . The so-called controllers there are often completely incapable of handling more than one movement every 4 or 5 minutes . Things are getting even worse as the April elections approach and every day there are more aircraft (many of them South African registered) on the VIP parking on the military side of the NAF Base. Many of them have the People's Democratic Party (PDP) logo on the tail. I guess the SA registered ones have something to do with the fact that the governor seems to have found plenty of money to open clinics in South Africa - maybe he's discussing his retirement plan ?

The Italian construction magnate, Gito (owner of the red Bell 407 5N-BIC), has also started clearance work on a large area at the NAF Base. It's rumoured that he's bringing in an EC155, A109E and possibly an EC135.

There seems to be some considerable delay in the arrival of CHCs next AW139, despite the crew having been in Italy for quite some time now. I hear rumours of delivery delays and crewing problems. Bristow are rumoured to be bringing in a couple of S76C++s for Chevron, to be based in Escravos, though how they'll crew them when they can't even crew their existing S76 fleet remains to be seen. Both companies still seem to be having problems getting enough pilots, particularly in Port Harcourt, despite a pay rise last year. maybe they need to think about paying more money for crews who are willing to go to Port Harcourt? A number of oil and oil-service companies are now paying bonuses as high as 80% for staff who are willing to work in Port Harcourt as it's deemed to be a dangerous place and secure housing is often situated a long distance from the workplace, with a long, dangerous road journey. At NAF Base now, there must be close to 20 - 30 armed escort vehicles every day waiting to escort their expatriate convoys around to their safe housing, where staff are confined by long curfews every day. In the midst of all this CHC are pissing people off by trying to make them work 44 days on site instead of 42 and Bristow have still not paid most people their promised workover pay

The elections (if they even happen) are due in 3 weeks and will be the first time in Nigeria that there has been a handover of power from one democratically elected government to another (if that's what's really happening ). There will doubtless be widespread intimidation, violence and vote rigging, particularly in the Delta areas, especially as the EU has announced that it's too dangerous for their election observers to visit Bayelsa, Delta or Rivers states (probably just that there aren't enough 5 star hotels or champagne for them ). Now's a good time to be going out on time-off
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