'We kidnapped an oil worker'

2006-08-07 14:13

Port Harcourt - A group calling itself the Movement for the Niger Delta People had claimed responsibility for last week's kidnapping of a German oil worker in southern Nigeria, but police said the group was unknown.

In an e-mail, the group demanded the release of the imprisoned governor of Bayelsa state, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was charged with financial crimes, and of a former militant leader on trial for treason, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

Police and hostage negotiation officials said on Monday that the group had not contacted them.

Police spokesperson Irejua Barasua said: "We have not seen the statement and we do not know this group." The German embassy declined to comment.

E-mail address 'not verifiable'

Magnus Abe, a spokesperson for Rivers State, where the kidnapping took place, said: "You have all sorts of people making all sorts of statements, and we don't deal on the basis of public statements."

He had not seen the group's statement, which was widely reported in the Nigerian media.

Neither the e-mail address nor further details about the group were immediately verifiable. The group didn't provide photos to prove that they were holding the German.

According to the statement, the group was seeking "greater emancipation of the Niger Delta people from the clutches of our oppressors".

3 Filipino oil workers kidnapped

Kidnappings had become common in the oil-rich region as militants and local communities had used hostage-takings to barter for a greater share of oil revenue or make political statements.

The e-mail said the German had been treated "with the utmost respect and possible liberty he requires in the circumstances". It didn't mention three Filipino oil workers kidnapped in a separate incident last week.

The German worker, who was taken on Thursday, was employed by construction giant, Bilfinger Berger AG, based in Mannheim, Germany, which was contracted to build facilities for an international oil company.

Police said that he was taken from his car at a fake checkpoint and forced into a boat by 10 attackers in military dress.

Several militant groups had kidnapped 35 foreigners so far this year. The largest, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, routinely communicated by e-mail and provided digital photos of captives to reporters.

Nigeria was Africa's biggest oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier of crude to the US, but militant attacks this year had shut down a quarter of the 2.6m barrels of oil it normally produced each day.

- AP