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Gunmen abduct electoral chief
15/12/2007 14:11 - (SA)
Lagos - Gunmen in oil-rich southern Nigeria have seized a senior official of Rivers state electoral agency and have demanded a ransom for his release, police said Saturday.
"Professor Nimi Briggs, the chairman of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission was kidnapped by unknown gunmen on Thursday. His captors are demanding money for his release," state police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu told AFP.
Ogbaudu did not say how much the kidnappers were demanding, but local newspapers said they wanted $850 000.
Briggs was seized from his home three days after the 80-year-old father of the deputy governor of southern Bayelsa state was abducted.
The whereabouts of Simeon Ebebi, the father of Perembowei Ebebi, the deputy governor of Bayelsa state, were still unknown.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest kidnappings in the restive oil region.
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 abduct.
Since July, the gangs have mostly switched to targeting the elderly parents and children of prominent Nigerians in the region, while continuing to seize foreigners when they can.
The Nigerian unrest has reduced the country's daily exports of 2.6 million barrels of crude at peak production by some 25% in the past two years.
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