Nigeria arrests militant leader

Militants are feared and communities tend not to stand up to them

A key militant leader in Nigeria's oil-producing Baylesa State has been arrested after women in the area he was using as a hideout demanded the police deal with an influx of oil rebels.

Ken Niweigha, known as "Daddy Ken", was detained after a roadblock shootout.

It is unusual for people to turn in militants as they are often feared or pay Delta communities to keep quiet.

But residents of Odi said they feared a repeat of an army operation 10 years ago which devastated the town.

Militants have been fleeing military action in neighbouring Delta State.

Mr Niweigha, the head of an armed group based in Bayelsa State, was said to have been harbouring them.

Escape attempt

The 500 women in Odi called on the commissioner of police, visiting the area at the time, to do something to prevent the military coming back to the town.

Thousands flee Delta fighting

It was after this that Mr Niweigha drove his car into a roadblock, local media reported.

He tried to escape, but the police opened fire, killing another man in the car.

The women were worried the militants presence would bring soldiers to the town, still living in the shadow of a military attack in 1999.

US-based rights body Human Rights Watch reported 50 people were killed in that attack, which was provoked by the murder of 12 policemen, allegedly by militants led by Daddy Ken.

Other local accounts put the number of dead at much higher.

A military operation is currently under way in the swamps of neighbouring Delta State.

The military Joint Task Force (JTF) are hunting militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).

It has been impossible to verify any casualty figures as travel to the region has been restricted by the military.

Militant groups in the Niger Delta have flourished amid a lack of governance and rule of law.

They claim to be fighting to help local people benefit from the region's oil wealth but fund their activities with oil theft, extortion and kidnapping.

The Joint Task Force, charged with bringing security to the Delta, has been accused of brutality and corruption.