|
Abducted mother released
28/10/2007 20:39 - (SA)
Lagos - Police have rescued the 70-year-old mother of a federal lawmaker kidnapped last week in the restive oil-producing Niger Delta, a senior officer said at the weekend.
A senior police officer said Goldcoast Dickson was rescued at Okuboama community in Delta state by the Joint Task Force (JTF), the military unit protecting oil facilities and personnel in the volatile region.
"She was released unhurt", a senior police officer said, declining to say if a ransom had been paid.
Three suspected kidnappers were arrested during the operation.
The woman was seized from her house in the riverside community of Toru-Orua on October 19 by gunmen who came to her house in a boat on October 19.
The seizure was the first time the parent of a federal Nigerian lawmaker was seized. Several family members of state lawmakers had previously been targeted.
In the 18 months leading up to June 2007, militant and criminal gangs in the Niger Delta concentrated on kidnapping foreigners, mostly oil workers, seizing some 200 of them in that period.
As companies stepped up security measures, expatriates became harder to get at and in July, many gangs started targeting the elderly parents and children of prominent Nigerians in the region.
The unrest in the Niger Delta has reduced exports of Nigeria's 2.6 million barrels of crude per day at peak production by a quarter in the past 18 months.
|
News
