Foreign oil workers are known in Nigeria's oil-rich south as "white gold" among the gangs that kidnap them.
They have seized more than 150 foreigners this year, including a just freed 3-year-old British girl. That's nearly double as many abductions as all of 2006, a kidnapping epidemic that has helped cut output in Africa's largest oil nation by a quarter, driving up prices worldwide.
"Ah, the whites are coming," one young gang member sipping beer in a ramshackle, roadside bar told a reporter with a chuckle as a heavily guarded oil company convoy sped through the oil city of Port Harcourt, sirens blaring. "It's like the vans for ice creams in your country."
ASI Global Response now rates Nigeria as second only to Iraq as the country with the greatest risk of kidnapping for foreign workers.
The desire for ransom fuels the kidnappings, gang members and oil industry officials say. They claim a cut goes to the government officials who shuttle between the charm-bedecked, rifle-toting gunmen in the swamps and professional negotiators flown in from Paris or London.
"Absolutely not true," Rivers state government spokesman Emmanuel Okah said this week.
But an official with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a militant group behind a number of high-profile kidnappings, said all sides pocket a portion of ransoms.
"Practically everyone involved in hostage negotiations has had his hands soiled," the militant said by e-mail. "Officials merely up the demands of the abductors and keep the rest to themselves, most times unknown to the abductors."
One oil worker told The Associated Press how his captors and visiting officials argued over his ransom: The kidnappers insisted they asked for more than twice the offered amount; the officials said it had been stolen when they left the cash unattended. He said he remained in captivity while they were sent back for more.
In another case, Nigerian security forces threatened to kill a hostage if he revealed the discrepancy between what his company paid and what his kidnappers received, a security expert said.
"In many cases, the proportion of released funds that ends up in the hands of the kidnappers is unknown," another security professional said. "State or local government officials are keen to act as the intermediaries in kidnap negotiations."
It's a delicate subject. Company officials refuse to discuss ransoms for fear of alienating powerful local interests or becoming targets themselves. Released hostages fear retribution from former captors or losing their job if they talk to the journalists.
Even gang members fear their collaborators in the government, even though they often serve as hired muscle during elections and frequently engage in violent clashes between themselves.
Because of the those worries, the former hostage, the security professionals and the gang member asked that no further details be published to protect their identities. Most of those who talked to the AP about government collusion in kidnappings asked for anonymity for similar reasons.
Few companies have a direct line to the kidnappers. When four employees of the Italian oil company Agip were kidnapped late last year, the militant group holding them announced the company had spent $1.5 million trying to secure their release through various middlemen.
"Agip has so far lost more than 200 million naira ($1.5 million) to various con artists," the militants said in an e-mail before announcing that the ransom _ allegedly unsolicited _ had been "confiscated."
Agip's parent company, Eni SpA, denied paying any ransom, and no oil company has ever publicly admitted doing so.
The militants, who claim to kidnap as part of a campaign to coerce the government into making political concessions and funneling more oil revenue to the poverty-stricken south, appeared to be trying to distance themselves from criminal gangs that kidnap for money.
Yet the web of connections among militants, criminals and government is more tangled than the roots of the steamy mangrove swamps where the hostages are held.
The militant group balked when pressed for more details on government involvement in ransom payments. "I never wish to seem like a snitch," said a spokesman, who denied soliciting ransoms.
But one state official admitted to AP that he took cash during the Agip kidnapping. He also insisted on not being quoted by name.
Other government officials indignantly denied the accusation.
Okah, the Rivers state spokesman, said no ransom was paid to secure the freedom Sunday of Margaret Hill, a 3-year-old British citizen who was the first foreign child snatched in the region.
Okah also said the state government no longer doles out cash from shadowy slush funds following a federal order last year prohibiting ransom payments.
In 2006, the Rivers state government allocated nearly $40 million as a "security vote," up from $27 million the year before. No records are available on how the money has been spent or how much has been allocated this year.
"In the early stage, the state government facilitated releases," Okah acknowledged. "Now, it's individuals" who pay ransoms.
Kidnappings are escalating. Two foreigners were grabbed Sunday, five were seized July 4 and held for a week, and an abduction attempt was repulsed Tuesday, police reported Wednesday.
Foreign oil workers aren't the only targets, though. Two senior Nigerian employees of Royal Dutch Shell PLC were abducted Saturday and released Wednesday, colleagues said, and two Nigerian toddlers were taken captive in the past six weeks.
The root causes behind the kidnappings _ poverty, corruption and lawlessness _ must be tackled before the region degenerates into a Colombia-style situation in which any wealthy person is a potential victim, regardless of employer or nationality, said Dimieari von Kemedi, a human rights lawyer working in the Niger Delta.
"A time may come when anyone wearing a tie is a target," he warned.
Bomb Blast at Secretariat
The Education Secretary of Aba South Local Government Education Authority in Abia, Mrs. Ejindu Ejindu, on Friday narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in her office.
The blast, which occurred around 1.30 p.m., shattered parts of her office, situated within the local government headquarters.
Witnesses said Ejindu managed to escape before her assailants, who on mistaken identity, thought that she was still in the office, detonated the bomb.
“They immediately accosted her when they noticed that she had escaped, and gave her machete cuts,” a witness said.
Ejindu was said to have been taken to a nearby clinic for medical attention.
The incident caused a stampede in the ever-busy council headquarters, as members of staff and visitors ran for safety.
The council Chairman, Dr Christian Duru, who later conducted policemen round the scene, said the incident was the first of its kind in the history of the council.
The DPO in charge of Aba Area Command, Mr. Samson Iza, who led the team, declined comments on the incident.
Some council workers described the attack as a dangerous dimension to the protracted agitation by the indigenes of the area against Ejindu‘s appointment.
She hails from Igbere in Bende Local Government area.
Primary schools in the area had been closed down since May when she was appointed, as the people insisted on the appointment of a native.
It was learnt that Ejindu had been receiving anonymous calls since her appointment, asking her to resign or get assassinated.
Major Contractors Abandoning Delta
Major contractors handling federal government projects in five oil producing states of the Niger Delta and another non-oil bearing state in the South East, have abandoned their projects because of rising cases of insecurity and youth restiveness in the areas.
The contractors include Setraco Nigeria Limited whose contract is valued at N64.1bn; Julius Berger Nigeria Limited with a cumulative project value of N108.4bn; RCC Nigeria Limited, which was handling a N43.5bn project before it started having security concerns and Gitto Nigeria Limited that was saddled with a N50.04bn job in the area.
Before they left their project sites, the construction firms were handling projects in Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Imo States.
In a memo to the president with reference number: WR. 14505/V.1/216 and dated July 9, the Federal Ministry of Works drew the attention of Yar’Adua to the growing cases of insecurity in the Niger Delta states and Anambra State in which it expressed regret that following the growing criminal activities and youth restiveness in both areas, its major road construction projects have been in jeopardy.
The affected projects are the dualisation of east-west section 1 (Warri-Kaiama) Delta State awarded to Setraco for N64.1bn; dualisation of east west road section 2 (Kaiama – Port Harcourt) being handled by Julius Berger for N79bn; dualisation of east west road section 3 (Onne junction – Eket) awarded to RCC for N35bn; and dualisation of east west road section 4 (Eket – Oron) given to Gitto for the sum of N26bn.
The others are construction of Eleme junction fly-over and dualisation of access road to Onne Port being handled by Julius Berger for N7.2bn; construction of Bodo – Bonny road with bridge awarded to Gitto for N24bn; completion of outstanding works on dualisation of Warri – Benin road, section 1 and 2 by RCC for the sum of N7.9bn; rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt International Airport at the cost of N3bn by Julius Berger and dualisation of Owerri-Onitsha road, section 3 also by Julius Berger at the cost of N19.4bn
In the memo, which was signed by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Nu’uman Barau Danbatta, the agency lamented that: “The contractors on these projects have experienced frequent kidnapping of their staff and vandalisation of their equipment by the militants. The contractors, have kept updating the ministry about the situation which has resulted in the withdrawal of their workers from the various sites.”
Danbatta in the memo, therefore, pleaded with Yar’Adua to among other things, “direct the governors of Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Imo States to, as an immediate measure and in order to encourage the contractors to re-mobilise to sites, initiate action through dialogue to restore security of lives and property in the affected areas.”
Similar memo complaining about how the level of insecurity in the Niger Delta states had prevent construction companies from making progress on the dualisation of the Warri-Kaiama in Delta State was last May prepared by former minister of works, Chief Cornelius Adebayo being handled by Setraco Nigeria Limited for the attention of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Militants Renounce Violence
HOPE for full restoration of peace, which has eluded troubled Okrika community in Rivers State, has emerged, following a declaration to that effect by the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante, Ateke Tom and the leaders of other rival militant groups.
Ateke's group had engaged other rival groups in a fierce battle for supremacy in the Okrika axis and other parts of Rivers State.
But yesterday at a ceremony mediated by the Kiriike-Be-Se Peace and Development Project and the Wakirike United Peace Guild, he and others pledged to discontinue all forms of hostility.
The militant groups involved in the Okrika crisis, namely Ateke's NDV; Outlaws; Niger Delta Solidarity Front; Klans Men; Green Landers; Black Axe and Iceland signed the peace deal.
The militant leaders swore to both Christian and traditional oaths, to end the fratricidal clashes in Okrika and other parts of the State.
At the occasion attended by the Okrika local government area council chairman, Christopher Chuama and the Amanyanabo of Koniju, Captain Nemi Tamuno Iyalla Oputieya X, the repentant militants promised to assist in the rehabilitation of their members and full restoration of normal life in Okrika.
While Ateke and the others embraced to signal the end to terror in Okrika; they guaranteed to work for peace in the entire Okrika and cooperate with other organisations, persons and agencies of government at the ward, local, state, federal and international levels to achieve peace in the area.
The Okrika council chairman, Chuama, described the signing of the peace agreement among the warring groups as a miracle and declared yesterday "a day of grace and happiness for the people of the Wakirike nationality."
He noted that the sincerity, honesty and spirit of repentance in the militants was real and urged all parties to embrace and forgive the militants who had shown remorse for their past misdeeds.
He said: "We should embrace our brothers and sisters who have, on their own, said enough is enough of maiming; enough is enough of killing; enough is enough of carrying arms against each other; and enough is enough of dividing this community. We must come together and give peace a chance."
The council chairman appealed to the government to engage and empower the fighters meaningfully, to avoid their going back to what they had willingly renounced.
He observed that the people of Okirika had in the past eight years toiled, wept and cried for peace to return to their troubled land.
The facilitators of the rare peace agreement, Evangelist, Clara Ngeribika and Mr. Egerton Akuro thanked God for His intervention in the Okrika crisis, describing yesterday as a remarkable day in the history of Okrika.
The Amanyanabo of Koniju, Captain Oputieya X, who attended the occasion with his Chiefs, also urged the government to speed up the development of Okrika as well as empower its youths that had renounced violence.
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