Group claims responsibility for kidnap of oil workers in Nigeria
LAGOS, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A previously unknown group, which calls itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), has claimed responsibility for this week's attack on oil installations in the Nigeria's Niger Delta and the abduction of four oil workers.
In a statement cited by Nigeria's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, the group, who are already being trailed by security agencies and the navy, said they were not out for cash ransom but to bring the issues of resource control in the impoverished delta to the front burner.
The group also wanted the former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached and arrested in December on charges of money laundering, re-instated and his confiscated assets by Britain and Nigeria returned to him. They also want the arrested leader of the banned Niger Delta Peoples' Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, released.
"We are capable and determined to destroy the ability of Nigeria to export oil or other petroleum products for that matter," the statement said.
"For the safety of its citizens, the United States and other European nations with citizens on our soil will do well to advise these individuals to leave immediately."
The group particularly singled out Britain "as an ally of the Nigerian government in its repressive actions" in the Niger Delta,where the majority of Nigeria's oil is produced.
"We use this medium to issue a first and final warning to the EU, particularly Britain ... to advise their citizens resident in the Niger Delta to leave at once as they have never been welcome on our soil," the group warned.
Four workers with two Royal Dutch Shell subcontractors, Tidex and Ecodrill, were abducted on Wednesday afternoon when armed men,riding in three boats, stormed Shell's EA oil field in the Atlantic Ocean.
The group gave the names of the workers in their custody as Bulgarian Milko Nichev, Honduran Harry Ebanks, American Patrick Arnold Landry, and British Nigel Watson Clark and said the abducted were being fed on eba, a starch derivative from cassava.
Also on Wednesday, a major pipeline to Shell's Forcados terminal was attacked, forcing the firm to declare a force majeure.The two incidents caused Shell to shut in about 226,000 barrels ofcrude oil per day in all.
The Chief of Naval Staff Ganiyu Adekeye, on Friday said the navy had information on the whereabouts of the kidnapped oil workers as well as data on the hoodlums who carried out the action.He also said the navy had taken control of affairs within the creeks in a bid to track down the kidnappers.
Nigeria is the biggest oil producer in Africa with a daily output of 2.5 million barrels, while Shell accounts for half of the country's oil production, but the situation in the country's oil regions in the south is turbulent.
Local villagers frequently shut off oil wells, kidnap oil workers or commit other forms of violence to blackmail companies operating in the oil fields as they accuse the oil firms of not doing anything to develop the impoverished area.
In a statement cited by Nigeria's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, the group, who are already being trailed by security agencies and the navy, said they were not out for cash ransom but to bring the issues of resource control in the impoverished delta to the front burner.
The group also wanted the former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached and arrested in December on charges of money laundering, re-instated and his confiscated assets by Britain and Nigeria returned to him. They also want the arrested leader of the banned Niger Delta Peoples' Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, released.
"We are capable and determined to destroy the ability of Nigeria to export oil or other petroleum products for that matter," the statement said.
"For the safety of its citizens, the United States and other European nations with citizens on our soil will do well to advise these individuals to leave immediately."
The group particularly singled out Britain "as an ally of the Nigerian government in its repressive actions" in the Niger Delta,where the majority of Nigeria's oil is produced.
"We use this medium to issue a first and final warning to the EU, particularly Britain ... to advise their citizens resident in the Niger Delta to leave at once as they have never been welcome on our soil," the group warned.
Four workers with two Royal Dutch Shell subcontractors, Tidex and Ecodrill, were abducted on Wednesday afternoon when armed men,riding in three boats, stormed Shell's EA oil field in the Atlantic Ocean.
The group gave the names of the workers in their custody as Bulgarian Milko Nichev, Honduran Harry Ebanks, American Patrick Arnold Landry, and British Nigel Watson Clark and said the abducted were being fed on eba, a starch derivative from cassava.
Also on Wednesday, a major pipeline to Shell's Forcados terminal was attacked, forcing the firm to declare a force majeure.The two incidents caused Shell to shut in about 226,000 barrels ofcrude oil per day in all.
The Chief of Naval Staff Ganiyu Adekeye, on Friday said the navy had information on the whereabouts of the kidnapped oil workers as well as data on the hoodlums who carried out the action.He also said the navy had taken control of affairs within the creeks in a bid to track down the kidnappers.
Nigeria is the biggest oil producer in Africa with a daily output of 2.5 million barrels, while Shell accounts for half of the country's oil production, but the situation in the country's oil regions in the south is turbulent.
Local villagers frequently shut off oil wells, kidnap oil workers or commit other forms of violence to blackmail companies operating in the oil fields as they accuse the oil firms of not doing anything to develop the impoverished area.
posted by Marko at 1/14/2006 02:24:00 PM
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