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14-year-old kidnapped in Nigeria
05/01/2008 18:37 - (SA)
Port Harcourt - Gunmen stormed into the home of a Nigerian politician and abducted his 14-year-old son, police said on Saturday.
The assailants, who kidnapped the boy on Friday night, have contacted his family demanding a ransom, Rivers State police spokesperson Ireju Barasua said.
It was the first abduction of the new year in Nigeria's volatile, oil-producing region.
"We have the report that the boy has been abducted and that the abductors have been in touch with the mother on the telephone demanding an unspecified amount of money," she said.
Kidnappings are a frequent occurrence in Nigeria. They initially targeted expatriate oil industry workers by groups demanding a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth or restitution for pollution caused by oil drilling.
Within the last year, however, the abduction of children has become alarmingly common.
Analysts say the prospect of large cash ransoms encourages the kidnappings and now many of the kidnappers may simply be criminal gangs with no political agenda.
Few suspects are arrested, encouraging gangs to think of hostages as easy cash, experts say.
Most of the child hostages are released unharmed after the ransom is paid.
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