Posted by From From Kelvin Ebiri on
GUNMEN yesterday stormed a jetty at Aker Base, Rumuolumeni, in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State and kidnapped two Filipinos working for an oil company.
GUNMEN yesterday stormed a jetty at Aker Base, Rumuolumeni, in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State and kidnapped two Filipinos working for an oil company.
As at press time, the motive for the abduction was yet unknown but there were indications
that the abduction was carried out by youths in six speedboats suspected to be from Old Bakana in Degema Local Government Area of the state.
Sources told The Guardian that the Filipinos were carrying out a check on one of their vessels when they were attacked.
As at press time no group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, the third in Rivers State in the last five weeks. A source, who was involved in the kidnapping of Saipiem oil Servicing Company workers last May, said the abduction might not be unconnected with the demand for employment opportunities.
When contacted, the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, claimed ignorance of the kidnap and later switched off her cell phone. Efforts to reach the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Samuel Adetuyi, were abortive as his phone was also switched off.
In a related development, a group, the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) has threatened to incite the gravest measure of brute force and violence ever witnessed in Black Africa on the nation if any harm befalls the detained leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo.
The group's spokesperson, Cynthia Whyte, said the JRC would deploy a three-hour operation tagged "The Locust Feast" which shall be targeted at some particular members of the Nigerian state (executive and/or judiciary) for they that create pain and injustice shall be fed with same.
"In a show of unearthly humaneness and good spirit, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari pleaded with the JRC to release all the recently held hostages MUCH against our will. We heeded to his plea much against our will. We warned him against being unduly sympathetic to the interests of the dubious Nigerian state. Now we know better. The history of this contraption called Nigeria shall be changed in that glorious three (3) hours," said Whyte.
The two kidnapped men are said to be working for a Norway-based oil services company, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS). Their direct employer in Nigeria is a company called Beaufort International, which is under contract to PGS.
There have been several of kidnappings this year of foreign oil workers. All of them have however been released after negotiations with the militants.
The common reason for the abduction is displeasure over the sorry fate of the Niger Delta region and its indigenes. Another reason is the continued detention of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force.
The Niger Delta - a 70,000 square km (27,000 square miles) swatche of swampland and mangrove forest - is home to Africa's biggest oil industry and to the 14 million-strong Ijaw tribe, many of whom dream of independence.
Although Nigeria is a major oil exporter, producing around 2.6 million barrels per day, most of its 130 million people live in grinding poverty and there is much resentment of government and the oil firms in the Delta.
Several illegal militias operate in the creeks and jungles of the region and in recent weeks have stepped up attacks on both government forces and the oil industry, in particular the Anglo-Dutch energy giant, Shell agencies.