Gunmen blow up oil delta home of Nigerian VP-elect

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, May 16 (Reuters) Unidentified gunmen today blew up the country home of Nigerian vice president-elect Goodluck Jonathan and sacked a nearby police station, killing two officers, police said.

Militant attacks in Africa's top producing nation have surged in the wake of flawed elections last month, raising the tally of oil supply halted by violence to about 900,000 barrels per day (bpd), or one third of Nigeria's total capacity.

''A group of gunmen in three boats attacked the country home of the vice president-elect. They used explosives and the house was partially burned,'' said police spokesman Haz Iwendi, adding that Jonathan's family were unharmed.

One police corporal was killed trying to defend the house, while a police inspector was shot dead when the attackers stormed a nearby divisional headquarters, Iwendi added.

Jonathan, who is still the governor of his native Bayelsa state, is due to be inaugurated as vice president on May 29. Last month's elections were so flawed by rigging and violence that international observers said they were not credible.

It was unclear whether the latest attack was related to a call by a prominent militant group in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region that is home to Nigeria's oil wealth, for a month of ''mayhem'' to press their demands for more autonomy.

On the eve of the April 21 election, Jonathan escaped unharmed when gunmen tried to invade the Bayelsa state government headquarters, shooting and setting off explosives.

Jonathan was chosen as running mate by Umaru Yar'Adua, the president-elect, in the hope of easing tensions in the oil producing region, but local militant groups have accused him of betraying their cause.

EXCHANGE Delta militants see the transition of power as an opportunity to extract concessions from the new federal government in exchange for a reduction in violence.

There are currently 13 foreign workers held hostage by several different armed groups in the delta.

Militants occupying a major oil export pipeline complex in Rivers State are expected to leave the facility today but said it would remain closed until talks with operator Royal Dutch Shell were complete.

Shell has shut down 170,000 bpd of oil production because of that attack.

US oil company Chevron has begun to restore 42,000 bpd from oilfields near its Abiteye flow station after it was occupied by villagers on May 7.

Oil exports from the Brass tanker terminal have been stopped since May 8, when militants bombed three pipelines in the area, forcing Italy's Eni to halt 98,000 bpd.

All this comes in the wake of a series of attacks in February 2006, which forced Shell to close oil facilities in the western delta pumping 600,000 bpd.

The prospect of power changing hands is just one of several causes of violence in the remote region of swamps and mangrove-lined creeks.

Unrest is rooted in resentment against an industry that has extracted billions of dollars in five decades but left the poor without electricity, water, schools or doctors.

The situation is compounded by government corruption, abuses by security forces and gang fighting linked to the trade in stolen crude oil.

Reuters ABM RS1625