Nigeria probes Delta gang links

The Nigerian president has ordered an investigation into alleged links between government officials in the Niger Delta and violent criminal gangs.

Rivers State officials - including the Deputy Governor - are accused of being secretly in control of the gangs.

Turf wars between rival gangs in the state capital, Port Harcourt, last month left around 40 people dead.

The city has been under night curfew since 17 August and last week the army sent in troops and helicopter gunships.

Leaders of the Delta's ethnic Ijaw residents met President Yar'Adua to spell out their complaints about the links between the gangs, or "cults", and named senior politicians.

The president asked them to fully document their allegations and promised that corrupt officials would be brought to justice.

Election promise

On his election in April, President Yar'Adua promised to tackle escalating crime in the Delta. The army operation launched last week is seen as part of a new policy to crush the region's powerful armed gangs and impose law and order.

Yar'Adua elected on pledge to bring corrupt officials to justice

But civil rights activists say it is an open secret that politicians and gangs have had a long, close relationship, with politicians paying the criminals to rig elections and intimidate opponents.

They say if the government is serious about destroying the gangs, it will also have to go after their political sponsors - and that could prove an embarassment to the ruling party.

Security in the Delta, which produces all of Nigeria's 2m barrels of oil per day, deteriorated markedly in early 2006.

Militants demanding more local control of oil revenues started blowing up pipelines and abducting foreign oil workers.

Nigeria lost an estimated fifth of its oil output, a loss that contributed to spikes in world oil prices.