Posted by By Bisi Olaniyi with agency report on
An expatriate, Mr. Michael Loss, an employee of the Westminster Dredging, was kidnapped on Thursday at the Gbarain/Ubie gas gathering project site....
An expatriate, Mr. Michael Loss, an employee of the Westminster Dredging, was kidnapped on Thursday at the Gbarain/Ubie gas gathering project site of the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The kidnap of Loss, who hails from Holland, came less than 24 hours after militant youths kidnapped four naval officers at a rig belonging to a local oil company in coastal Sangana in Brass Local Government Area of the state.
Westminster Dredging, a contractor to the SPDC, is handling the sand-filling of the multimillion dollars gas gathering project in the area.
Our correspondent gathered that the militant youths came in two speed boats through the adjourning creeks and kidnapped the expatriate. Two service rifles belonging to the security personnel on guard duty at the site and a speed boat of the company were taken away.
A native of Gbarain, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said the abduction was due to an alleged insensitivity of the firm to the demands of the host community.
The source said the aggrieved youths wanted the firm to employ them and to stop bringing less qualified people from outside the area.
To show their displeasure, some youths staged a peaceful protest in Yenagoa on Thursday, unaware that some of them had kidnapped an expatriate.
Policemen from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Bayelsa State Police Command swooped on the protesters and arrested some of them. They were currently helping the police in their investigations.
The Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State Command, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, confirmed the kidnap and arrest of the youths, whose number and identities could not be ascertained as at press time.
A spokesman of the SPDC, Mr. Bisi Ojediran, also confirmed the incident.
Ojediran said a group of local people had mounted a protest march in Gbaran earlier on Thursday to demand jobs, roads and schools for their community.
"While this was going on, some men in military uniform went to the project site and took the expatriate," he said.
The hostage-taking was the second in less than 24 hours.
On Wednesday some militants forced their way onto a rig drilling for the Consolidated Oil and kidnapped a retired navy officer working as a security guard.
According to Navy spokesman, Capt. Obiora Medani said, the attackers told Consolidated Oil that they came from nearby Sangana community. The group is accusing the oil firm of not meeting the terms of an agreement to help provide them with jobs and local amenities, he said.
Officials of Consolidated Oil were not immediately available for comment.
Kidnappings in the restive and impoverished Niger Delta have been common in recent months with militants using the hostages to bargain for a greater share of the wealth from Africa‘s largest crude producer.
Attacks on oil pipelines and kidnappings, most of them by the largest militant group - Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta - have cut Nigerian oil production by more than 20 percent this year, adding to the upward pressure on world prices.
Some groups have asked for money and others for freedom for imprisoned comrades. Most of the kidnappings have ended peacefully.
Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State Command of the State Security Service, headed by Mr. Eteng Bassey, has brokered peace between an indigenous oil company and the people of Sangana in Brass Local Government Area of the state, over the four kidnapped naval officers.
The peace meeting which started in the early hours of Thursday at the Yenagoa office of the SSS, was still on as at press time.
The people of coastal Sangana was led by the Chairman of the community's council of chiefs, Chief Dickson Oki, while the oil firm had Messrs. Tony Nwosu, Leke Omoteso and Richard Edegbayi as representatives.
In order to ensure a lasting peace, a new Memorandum of Understanding was being worked on.
The whereabouts of the yet-to-be-identified naval personnel remained unknown, while their four service rifles that the militant youths seized could also not be traced.
An impeccable source at the meeting told our correspondent that the oil company's representatives maintained that the Wednesday morning's kidnap was uncalled for, in view of the company's commitment to the development of the host community.
The controversial 2005 MoU, which led to the kidnap, in view of the oil company's alleged refusal to implement it, was signed at the company's office in Lagos, instead of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital, as being done by other oil companies.
It was learnt that the signing of the MoU in Lagos by a 'clique" which did not receive the blessing of the entire community, was because of late last year's crisis and insecurity, as a result of the removal of the former state governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
The clique, according to the source, wanted the community development funds to be used to execute meaningful projects, but the majority preferred cash to be shared.
In view of the disagreement, the oil company refused to honour the MoU and the payment of agreed funds in the last six months, leading to the kidnap, allegedly carried out by the militant youths mobilised from a neighbouring state.
If not for the stalemate since January, Sangana people would have been enjoying environmental protection and facilities' patrol/surveillance funds and N1 million community development fund monthly.
The oil company would have also been paying each of the 99 youths from the community a monthly allowance of N8,000.
With the peace brokered by the SSS, the company had agreed to pay the arrears since January, when it ought to have taken effect, totalling N11, 950, 400.00.
The new MoU to be signed later will ensure that the people are paid cash, instead of projects to be embarked upon by the oil company, with those who signed the Lagos MoU staying away from the peace meeting.
It will be recalled that the kidnapped naval personnel were attached to a rig belonging to the oil company and were overpowered by the no fewer than fifty militant youths.
The Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State Command, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, still insisted on Thursday that a retired naval officer from Sangana was kidnapped by the youths, but silent over the four seized rifles.