AB,
I don't think there's any blackout, just the guys involved don't feel like talking about it yet and nobody is going to say or write anything which may compromise security now or in the future.
Aser,
I don't think anyone's foot was afraid
, but all of the people involved were pretty scared at the time. One of the wounded pilots has been released from hospital, the other, with more serious injuries needs more surgery.
CB,
One of the security forces has died of his injuries.
Thanks for your concern, now we need some time to take in what happened and see what will be put in place to try and stop it happening again. If nothing else it should serve as a wake-up call to all those of us here and our bosses that the situation is still dangerous and when we express our fears and wishes for something to be done to improve our lot in the Delta we're not just exaggerating the situation for personal benefit. All of us working here know the risks and chose to stay, but that doesn't mean that those sitting in air-conditioned offices in relative safety, can just take that as a sign that we're happy with the situation and can be ignored. It would be a welcome sight to see Wee Dick volunteer to spend a night in Eket and travel to work on the QIT super-highway at 0600 and tell everyone that there's no problem and if anyone wants to leave he has a thick stack of applications sitting on his desk
. This time it's no good just ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away. What's been needed for a long time is proactive management, not ostrich, head-in-the sand reactive management. When it came to talking tough with oil companies about paying up or having services withdrawn Neddy Holdon got the job done and got results. That was because it benefited Bristow financially. Now we need to see the same thing happen again in terms of tough talk to ensure funds are there to provide the best security for people working in the most dangerous areas. People are still prepared to work here, but want to know that their security is taken seriously. Nothing happens immediately, especially in Nigeria and it's better that some thought is given to long-term solutions, rather than knee-jerk reactions which may have unsustainable solutions.
Meanwhile, I hope that the family of the dead security force man will be taken care of - life is hard for families left behind in Nigeria. I'm sure everybody wishes our injured colleague a full and fast recovery from his injuries.