Nine Nigerian Oil Workers Abducted In Bayelsa

Niger Delta militants

Nine employees of Octopus Clan Nigerian Limited and the Deck Oil Services have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen along the Ilebiri Creek in the Southern Ijaw Area of Bayelsa State.

Sources in the security services said in Yenagoa on Sunday that the workers were abducted at about 2pm on Thursday by the yet to be identified gunmen, who are also suspected to be behind the killing of 12 policemen in Azuzuama on April 6.

SaharaReporters gathered that the gunmen seized the oil workers to negotiate a reprieve from the JTF which launched a series of raids to smoke out the kidnappers from their known camps.

It would be recalled that following the massacre of the policemen, the kidnappers released one of the policemen that had been on the ill-fated boat attacked after allegedly collecting a ransom of N1 million.  It is common practice for the security services to negotiate with the kidnappers, who are often known to them.

The kidnapped workers, all of them Nigerians, were on their way to work to repair leaks within Agip’s pipeline network in the Southern Ijaw Area of Bayelsa.

It will also be recalled that recently, a couple of oil companies suspended activities in some areas of their operation.  Agip suspended operations in its onshore oil fields in Bayelsa, while Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) announced suspended operations and on March 23 declared ‘force majeure’ on its oil output from the facility.

`Force Majeure' is a legal notice that absolves an oil firm of liability for failure to meet supply obligations to crude buyers due to circumstances beyond the firm’s control

NAOC attributed the frequent spills to oil theft by vandals and said that it had decided to shut down operations to prevent further damage to the environment.
 

An indigene of the Ikebiri community, Kelvin Okuneibie  said that   fishermen along the waters confirmed that the gunmen swooped on the oil workers from the Azuzuama axis of the area.

Five of the kidnapped workers are employees of  Port Harcourt-based Octopus Clan Nigeria Limited while the remaining four work for Deck Oil Services.
The Police spokesman in Bayelsa Alex Akhigbe said that the Police was yet to get a report of the incident from the oil services firms.