By Austin Ekeinde
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Four Nigerian militant factions on Friday accepted in principle an amnesty offer from President Umaru Yar'Adua, giving a boost to his efforts to end years of unrest in Africa's biggest oil industry.
The president on Thursday offered a 60-day amnesty to gunmen in the Niger Delta who have been responsible for pipeline bombings, attacks on oil and gas installations and the kidnapping of industry workers over the past three years.
The unrest has prevented the world's eighth biggest oil exporter from pumping much above two thirds of its installed capacity of 3 million barrels per day, costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue and pushing global energy prices higher.
Representatives of Ateke Tom, Farah Dagogo, Soboma George and Boyloaf -- key leaders of armed gangs behind some of the most spectacular attacks -- said they wanted to meet Yar'Adua to work out details of the deal.
"We accept peace as encapsulated in the said offer of amnesty," they said in a joint statement.
"Depending on the outcome (of the meeting with Yar'Adua), the leaders will then announce when they will begin to hand over the arms and ammunitions in their possession to the federal government," the statement said.
Nigeria's chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshall Paul Dike, said the security forces would observe a cease-fire and respect all the terms of the amnesty. But he warned the army would respond if attacked.
The four factions have links to the main umbrella militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which is in reality a loose coalition of armed gangs.
The amnesty proposal could mean MEND suspends a month-old campaign of attacks which have shut down at least 133,000 barrels per day of oil production.
The group has so far declined to comment directly on the amnesty offer but said it had blown up a well-head in a Royal Dutch Shell oil field late on Thursday.
It blamed the military for going on a "punitive expedition" in a local community hours after Yar'Adua announced the amnesty proposal, a charge the security forces denied.
FRAGILE DEAL
One of MEND's key demands has been the release of its suspected leader, Henry Okah, who is on gun-running and treason charges and could face the death penalty if convicted.
A presidential spokesman said Okah, who was arrested in Angola in September 2007 and extradited to Nigeria five months later, would be freed if he took the amnesty offer and that Yar'Adua would send a delegation to inform Angola's president.
But the unrest in the delta, one of the world's largest wetlands, is not a straightforward political struggle and sceptics question whether amnesty alone will be enough to halt a cycle of opportunistic attacks, crude oil theft and kidnapping.
Even if militant leaders agree on paper to a cease-fire, there is little to stop splinter groups with speedboats and dynamite from attacking hundreds of kilometres of exposed pipeline or continuing abductions and ransom demands.
The four militant groups who have agreed in principle to the deal are from Rivers and Bayelsa states.
There has been no word yet from militants in Delta state, where the army launched its biggest offensive for a decade last month, destroying the camp of Government Tompolo, a gang leader accused of running a major crude oil stealing operation.
"The cries of the dead will continue to inspire the eruption of more flow stations and strategic pipelines across the length and breadth of the Niger Delta," said a spokeswoman for a faction calling itself the Joint Revolutionary Council.
It is not the first time amnesty has been on the table.
Yar'Adua's predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo struck just such an agreement in 2004 with militants including Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, whose Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force turned over thousands of weapons in return for amnesty.
The deal broke down when some factions accused others of not sharing money paid for disarmament. Asari was later arrested and charged with treason, though he has since been released.
Interior Minister Godwin Abbe said the government had not yet worked out the costs of the amnesty programme, which is due to run from August 6 to October 4, although the government has said it will not offer a "buy-back" programme for weapons.
The authorities have said they believe as many as 20,000 militants and criminals could participate. Some 15 amnesty camps are planned in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and other southern states.
(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Randy Fabi and Alison Williams)
