Nigeria Security Update #1 160607

Contract Workers Building Hospital Abducted

Gunmen kidnapped two Lebanese construction workers in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta on Friday, a military spokesman said.

The two men, who work for Italian firm Stabilini, were snatched in Delta state in the western part of the anarchic wetlands region. The kidnappers took them away by speedboat, he said.

"Our troops are pursuing them into the creeks now," said Omale Ochagwuba, spokesman for the Joint Task Force responsible for security in the area.

Stabilini is building a hospital at Ogara in Delta state and the men were on their way there when they were snatched, he said.

Oil industry sources said they had heard three Chinese and one Pole had been kidnapped and they named the same area. But this could not be confirmed by the authorities and it was unclear if it was the same incident being reported differently, or a separate incident.

The new Nigerian government and armed groups in the delta have made peace overtures in the past two weeks but the situation in the region remains volatile.

Some militants abduct foreigners to press political demands, but kidnappings for ransom are also very frequent. About 20 other foreigners are being held captive in different parts of the delta.


Strike Over Fuel Prices & VAT Slated to Start Monday

Speculations were rife, yesterday over last minute moves by the organized labour to commence a nationwide strike from Monday next week if the Federal Government failed to listen to the call made by concerned Nigerians over the recent increase in pump price of petrol, Value Added Tax (VAT) and the sale of refineries.

This move was made known in Owerri, yesterday through a press statement issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), restating its stand on the 14-day ultimatum given by the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the NLC in respect of the over 15.4 percent rise of petroleum products.

The document signed by the state chairman and secretary, Comrades Isidore Opara and John Amadi respectively vowed to join the national body in the strike action.

"The congress warns that if the President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration failed to reverse the pump prices of petroleum products, recover the national assets, refineries and monuments unduly sold, as well as implement the 15 per cent increase in salaries as demanded by the NLC, the organized labour in Imo State would have no option than to join the national strike whenever it commences.

“The NLC condemns the hardship imposed on Nigerians by the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo by increasing arbitrarily the pump prices of petroleum products and other items that shape the economic situation of the country.

“The fuel situation in Imo State is somewhat worrisome as most of the filing stations in many parts of the state, including Owerri, the state capital are under lock and key as their owners displayed "no fuel" tag in front of their shops.

“Not only fuel products are sold from upward of N120.00 per litre, most of the consumable goods have all skyrocketed and indigenes of the state are so worried that they can no longer afford their daily needs,” the statement stated.

Indian Hostages Freed After Two Weeks

All twelve Indian hostages have been freed in Nigeria - they were seized by merceneries on June 1 in the oil city of Port Harcourt.

Seven of them are employees of the Indonesia based firm Indorama and the others are members of their families.

Indorama officials led the negotiations for their freedom.

Separately on Tuesday two others named Devashish Kakoti and Sunil Dave - both employees of the firm were freed by the gunmen as a humanitarian gesture.

The Indians were taken hostage after gunmen attacked their residential quarters in Rivers state.

Indorama had sent a Director-level officer to Nigeria to negotiate with the kidnappers.

In the wake of the abduction, many other Indians had been evacuated from the state to the Nigerian capital Lagos.

The Indian High Commission had taken up the matter of Indians' security with Nigerian Foreign Ministry and National Security Adviser while the External Affairs Ministry took up the issue with the Nigerian High Commission New Delhi.


Dokubo-Asari Swears to Reunite Militant Groups

Newly released Nigerian militant leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari hopes to reunite splintered armed groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta around his radical agenda for independence, he told Reuters on Friday.

In an interview hours after his release on bail, Asari distanced himself from a surge in hostage-taking in the swamps of southern Nigeria but said he was not opposed to disrupting the oil industry in Africa's top producer.

Asari said militant groups in the region were suffering from a lack of visible leadership.

"They are all faceless. That is the problem because there is no person to deal with. We are going to call a meeting of all the groups. Those who are willing to come, we are going to do something about it," he said.

Asari, the former leader of the rebel Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force which laid down arms in late 2004, was freed on bail on Thursday after 20 months in jail on treason charges.

His release, granted on condition he not participate in any political activity, was a key demand of groups whose attacks and abductions have cut oil output by a quarter and driven away thousands of foreign workers.

"I am totally against kidnapping, but I am not against anything that affects the oil exploration and exploitation," Asari said. "The reason is because as a people we have the right to the ownership of our resources."

Militants have hinted that Asari's release could open the way for talks with the government of newly inaugurated President Umaru Yar'Adua and allow foreign multinationals to resume normal operations in the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

HOSTAGES

Since Yar'Adua's inauguration on May 29, militant groups have freed 19 hostages as a sign of their willingness to give him a chance to fulfil his promise of urgent action to address the region's grievances of poverty and neglect.

But the situation in the region was still volatile on Friday. Two Lebanese and two Indian construction workers were kidnapped in Delta state, a military spokesman said, bringing to about 24 the total number of hostages in captivity.

Asari said any return to normalcy would take time.

"One cannot say my release will immediately revert it back to normal. It will take a much longer time because criminal elements have got themselves involved in this trade of hostage taking, extortion and so on," he said.

"If there is good will on the side of the government I think it will take from one to six months or a year for things to return to normal," he added.

Asari said the militant movement in the delta had become splintered since his detention, and the goals of the different groups were diverse.

"The issues we are demanding are very different. Others are demanding resource control, we are demanding self determination," he said.

Asari, a Muslim convert, said he would work with Yar'Adua's government if it showed sincerity. Like Asari, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan is from the Ijaw ethnic group which predominates in the delta.

"I am happy that an Ijaw man is the vice president and I will work with him in the best way I can," Asari said, adding that a meeting he held with Jonathan on Friday was private.


Chronology of Terror

Below is a chronology of some major attacks and kidnappings involving the Nigerian oil industry in the past three months. --

• March 14 - Militants release two Italian workers they had been holding since Dec. 7.
  
• April 4 - A Dutch manager for German building contractor Bilfinger Berger, kidnapped in Port Harcourt on March 23, is released. A British worker, abducted from the Bulford Dolphin oil rig on March 31, is freed. Two Lebanese employed by Setraco, who were abducted in Bayelsa on April 2, are also released.
  
• April 7 - Gunmen kidnap two Turkish engineers from their car in Port Harcourt. One works for Merpa, a Turkish firm that maintains telecommunications on oil platforms.
  
• April 27 - Gunmen kill two policemen in a failed kidnap attempt in Port Harcourt as the officers are escorting a convoy of vehicles carrying expatriate staff to work.
  
• May 1 - Four Italians, an American and a Croat are kidnapped from an offshore oil facility operated by U.S.-based Chevron in Bayelsa state. They are freed on June 2.
  
• May 3 - Gunmen kidnap 20 foreign workers in three attacks in the Niger Delta but eight are freed within hours. Saipem reduces output by about 50,000 barrels a day.
  
• May 5 - Gunmen abduct a British oil worker from Trident 8 rig operated by U.S.-based Transocean off the coast of Bayelsa. Separately, gunmen abduct a Belarussian woman, a manager of Britain's Compass Group, from outside her home in Port Harcourt's exclusive GRA district. She is freed on May 16. -- Rebels blow up three oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, forcing Italian oil giant Eni to halt production of 150,000 barrels per day feeding its Brass export terminal. MEND claims responsibility.
  
• May 19 - Two Indian staff of Eleme Petrochemical Company, majority-owned by Indonesia's Indorama, are kidnapped by gunmen in Port Harcourt.
  
• May 22 - Four gunmen kidnap a Lebanese man who is a financial controller at oil service company Nigercat in the city of Warri.
  
• May 24 - Gunmen kidnap a Polish engineer near Warri. He is released on May 28.
  
• May 25 - Nine oil workers are kidnapped from a ship off the Nigerian coast; those held are three Americans, four Britons. A South African and a Filipino are released on June 11.
  
• May 30 - Four U.S. oil workers, kidnapped on May 9 from a barge off the coast near Chevron's Escravos crude export terminal, are freed. -- June 1 - Gunmen kidnap at least three senior managers of Indonesian chemical firm Indorama from their residential estate near Port Harcourt. It later emerges 10 people were taken. -- Gunmen kidnap four workers from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Pakistan from the residential compound of oil services giant Schlumberger in Port Harcourt.
  
• June 3 - Gunmen kidnap six staff of United Company RUSAL, the Russian aluminium giant, in Ikot Abasi in the southeast. The men were working at the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), controlled by RUSAL.
  
• June 11 - Five Britons, three Americans are released in Bayelsa state. Two Indians are also freed, as well as a Filipino and a South African, who were kidnapped on May 25.
  
• June 15 - Gunmen kidnap two Lebanese men, working for Italian firm Stabilini, near Ogara in Delta state. Two Indian construction workers are also kidnapped in Delta state. -- June 16 - Militants release 10 Indian hostages held since June 1.