Shell puts employees on alert

2006-05-11 09:09

Abuja - Royal Dutch Shell put its workers in Nigeria on alert on Wednesday after an American, believed to be working for an oil firm, was shot and killed in Niger Delta.

An unidentified American was shot at close range on Wednesday in the Abuloma area of the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt.

The assailant was reportedly riding a motorcycle when he pulled close to the car of the victim and fired.

A senior police official in Port Harcourt said that the victim was an employee of an oil company, adding that police were still searching for the assailant.

Continuing tensions in Niger Delta

After the shooting, British-Dutch oil company, Shell, in an internal memorandum, said it was issuing a warning to all its Nigeria employees, in light of continuing tensions in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Militants in Niger Delta had been attacking oil facilities and taking expatriate oil workers hostage since the beginning of this year, in an effort to press home community demands for more control and profit sharing in the region's oil industry.

The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which kidnapped 10 foreign oil workers earlier this year, but later released them, said it was not involved in Wednesday's killing.

Jomo Gbomo of the MEND said: "We did not have a hand in the shooting of the American, but we will investigate further."

Nigeria's delta region was home to more than 90% of the west African country's oil wealth, but its population had long complained of abject poverty and neglect by the federal government.

- SAPA