BREAKING NEWS - NOON
There have been reports of serious fighting at the Oshodi area of Lagos.
There are bonfires on the bridge. Travelers are advised to seek alternate routes in the meantime.
There have been reports of serious fighting at the Oshodi area of Lagos.
There are bonfires on the bridge. Travelers are advised to seek alternate routes in the meantime.
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Four gunmen seized a Lebanese worker in Nigeria's western delta oil city of Warri on Tuesday, the military and security sources said.
The armed men also snatched the Lebanese man's car, security sources said, adding that a gun was recovered at the scene. The man was a financial controller at oil service company, Nigercat.
"A Lebanese was kidnapped by gunmen at the Enerhen junction this morning. We are waiting to get details of those responsible for the kidnap," Brigadier-General Lawrence Ngubane, commander of the military task force in Warri, told Reuters.
The latest abduction takes to 15 the number of foreign workers being held by different militant groups in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region where all of Nigeria's crude oil is produced.
More than 100 foreigners have been taken hostage in the Niger Delta since January, but most of them were freed after their employers paid ransoms.
Kidnappings and militant attacks have surged in Africa's top oil producer since February 2006, cutting a third of Nigeria's output and forcing thousands of expatriates to evacuate.
Chinese hostages stall troops invasion of MASSOB hideout
A COMBINED team of military, State Security Services (SSS) and Mobile Police personnel are reportedly awaiting clearance from the Presidency to invade an enclave of suspected Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) members in Ebonyi State.
The group is said to be holding hostage two Chinese nationals abducted from Nnewi, Anambra State at the mountainous boundary towns of Okagbue and Ekoli-Edda in Ohafia and Afikpo South local councils of Abia and Ebonyi states.
When The Guardian visited the area at the weekend, there was heavy presence of security and military personnel at various entry points at Ekoli, where the MASSOB men had earlier allegedly inflicted punishment on innocent citizens as they sacked the police station in the area.
Villagers told The Guardian that three weeks ago, they woke up to hear sporadic gunshots by the invaders, who overpowered policemen at the police station, seized their arms and ammunition before declaring the area "Biafran territory."
The sources disclosed that the security operatives, numbering about 21, came in respect of the disputed land situated between Ohafia and Ekoli-Edda in Abia and Ebonyi states, where they suspected MASSOB members built their headquarters complete with generating sets that transmits electricity round the clock.
"It was from this hideout that they entered Ekoli and after sacking the policemen from the Divisional Police Station, they boasted that this was Biafran territory and as such the Nigeria Police have no claim to the place. Every evening, they shot into the air at random, scaring everybody away from the village," another source narrated.
He disclosed that the police called for reinforcement while the chairman of the council, Francis Amah, made a report to Governor Sam Egwu, who called for military assistance to dislodge the hostage takers.
But plans to invade the area were stalled after it was discovered that the MASSOB men were holding two Chinese nationals hostage, who they kidnapped at a car assembly plant in Nnewi, Anambra State.
Consequently, the security officials refrained from using force against the hostage takers.
However, Ekoli residents are complaining of harassment and intimidation by soldiers drafted to the area, who are idling away.
Amah said it was costing his council enormous resources to keep the soldiers, pointing out that care was being taken to ensure amicable resolution of the matter.
While The Guardian was in Ekoli, police officers from the National Headquarters of the Force Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) also arrived in the area.
Some of the security chiefs said that only President Olusegun Obasanjo could give the order to storm the MASSOB hideout. They added that the presence of the Chinese nationals and the need to ensure their safety were responsible for the cautious approach to the situation.
"They cannot match us in firepower but diplomacy is involved and Nigeria's interest as well as that of China are at the centre of the consideration," one of them said.
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