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Legislator's mother kidnapped
14/08/2007 10:37 - (SA)
Yenagoa - Nigerian gunmen kidnapped the mother of a state legislator in the southern oil producing Niger Delta, the latest in a spate of abductions of relatives of prominent people, said authorities on Tuesday.
The woman, whose son was a member of the Bayelsa state house of assembly, was abducted on Monday night from her home in Brass, a remote coastal area of Bayelsa, which was one of three core oil states in the delta.
It was the third abduction in less than a month targeting relatives of Bayelsa legislators.
The 11-year-old son of another member was abducted on August 07 and was still missing, while the elderly mother of the speaker of the house was freed on August 03 after 10 days in captivity.
Girl, 3, kidnapped
These incidents were part of a new trend in the delta, where kidnappers used to snatch mostly foreign oil workers to extort money from their firms but have now started targeting relatives of people they think could pay a good ransom.
In neighbouring Rivers state, two three-year-old children were kidnapped in July. One had a British father while the other was the son of a traditional chief.
Expatriate workers were still being targeted. More than 200 of them had been kidnapped since early 2006 and most had been released unharmed in exchange for ransoms. At least five were still in captivity in different parts of the delta.
Violence in the impoverished delta surged early last year after armed rebels demanding control over oil revenues blew up pipelines and oil wells. Their raids shut down a fifth of oil output from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter.
But since then, the violence had degenerated into an uncontrollable crime wave.
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