German oil worker kidnapped
2006-08-04 08:48
Port Harcourt - Militants wearing camouflage uniforms have taken a German oil industry worker hostage, spiriting him away on a boat into Nigeria's troubled oil-rich delta region, say police.
Ireju Barasua of police said the German man was snatched from his car on Thursday as he travelled to work in Port Harcourt in southeastern Rivers State.
Barasua said the man worked for construction giant Bilfinger Berger AG, based in Mannheim, Germany, which had been contracted to help build facilities for an international oil company.
Barasua said 10 attackers seized the man less than a kilometre from Port Harcourt's main police station.
She said: "He was stopped by some hoodlums wearing army uniforms. They pretended it was stop and search. Then they put him on a private boat and took him off down the waterway."
A German went missing in Nigeria
Barasua said authorities were searching for the victim, including Nigerian navy and armed forces combing creeks for witnesses.
However, she said the hostage would be difficult to find. The labyrinth of creeks and mangrove swamps was the size of Scotland and dotted with small villages.
A spokesperson said Germany's foreign ministry was looking into reports that a German went missing in Nigeria.
An employee at one of Bilfinger Berger AG's constructions site in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, said he had heard about the hostage-taking through colleagues.
He said the man worked as a foreman for the company and was more than 40 years old. The employee declined to give his name because he wasn't authorised to speak to the media.
Attacks on oil pipelines and kidnappings by militants in the country's southern Niger Delta had cut oil production by more than 20% this year, adding to the upward pressure on world prices.
Militants kidnap oil workers
Nigeria was Africa's biggest oil producer and normally produced about 2.5 million barrels a day.
Militants had kidnapped oil workers to bargain for a greater share of the wealth from Africa's largest crude producer. More than 30 had been taken this year, three from the oil-producing hub of Port Harcourt.
The militants argued that residents remained deeply impoverished, benefiting little from oil wealth while government officials and oil companies became rich.
Some militant groups had asked for money and others for freedom for imprisoned comrades.
Most of the kidnappings had ended peacefully although an American oil worker was shot dead in Port Harcourt in April. Police had not linked the murder to militant attacks.
Meanwhile, the government announced that foreign minister Okonjo Iweala resigned because of "a compelling need to take care of pressing family issues".
Iweala was named foreign minister in June. She previously served as finance minister, helping secure the cancellation of $30bn of Nigeria's debt, Africa's biggest-ever.
- AP