'$40m ransom for Shell workers'
2005-06-16 16:56
Lagos - Nigerian officials were on Thursday negotiating for the release of two German and four Nigerian employees of a German oil firm kidnapped by local youth activists, a company spokesperson said.
"We don't know what the youths want," said Clement Iloba of B and B (Bilfinger Berger Gas and Oil Services Ltd), a subcontractor for Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.
An anonymous official with Shell, a main operator in Nigeria's Niger delta, said on Wednesday the men had been kidnapped and the hostage takers had made a series of demands concerning "provision of social services such as water, good roads, schools, among others."
The men were "kidnapped on the high seas", Iloba told AFP, off the coast of the southeastern Delta and Bayelsa states, in territory where hostages are often snatched by activists angry at pollution and demanding input in the local communities.
"So much is being done by the government of Bayelsa State to ensure the quick release of the oil workers being held hostage," Bayelsa State government spokesperson Zee Debekeme told AFP.
"A meeting is under way between the secretary to the state government and all the security chiefs in the state, including the State Security Service (SSS) to ensure the release of these hostages," he said, adding that the government was "in touch with the so-called hostage-takers with a view to listening to their grievances."
Another official said, "The commissioner in charge of special affairs is presently in Ekeremor region" where the kidnapping took place.
The Shell official said the men had been abducted "by a group calling itself 'Iju-Warri'," a newcomer among movements known for such seizures.
A representative of the Ijaw ethnic community told AFP that B and B had recently had problems with residents of Delta state who claimed the firm was not keeping promises.
News reports said the kidnappers were young Ijaw from Iduwini village in Ekeremor, not far from the Shell oil terminal at Tunu.
Unconfirmed reports said the hostage-takers were demanding $20m ransom and implementation of an agreement reached in 2000 with Shell on the development of infrastructures in the region.
The independent Vanguard newspaper said the $20m represent "damages and compensation for the over 40 persons allegedly killed in separate accidents caused by a burnt rig, abandoned by the company in the high sea since 1969, as well as loss of fishing rights over the sea since then."
Shell has experienced problems in recent months with host communities in southern Niger Delta which accuse it of violating its agreements on development of their area.
Kidnapping of of oil workers is rampant in the oil-rich region of Africa's largest producer and the world's fourth largest exporter, with daily production of 2.5 million barrels.
Local communities accuse foreign oil companies and authorities of not passing the oil wealth on to them.
- SAPA