Gunmen late Friday kidnapped a Lebanese man in Nigeria’s southern oil city of Port Harcourt, police said
Felix Ogbuadu, Rivers state police commissioner, said that the man abducted was Mohammed Ibrahim, a manager with Modant Marine, a shipyard service company operating in the Niger Delta. Ibrahim was abducted on the city’s Iwofe road at about 7.25 p.m (18.25 GMT)
The incident was just the latest in a string of abductions in the oil-rich province.
The delta, home to Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar oil industry, has seen an upsurge in violence and hostage-takings by militant groups in the past year.
Some 190 foreigners, mostly in the oil sector, have been abducted. Most of them have been released after spending days and even weeks in captivity.
The most vocal of the militant groups, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), said it was suspending its abduction campaign for one month after Nigeria’s new president, Umaru Yar’Adua, was sworn in on May 29.
But they insisted that he come up with solutions for the region’s problems and have called for the government to release Asari Dokubo, a separatist leader held since 2005.
Nigeria’s supreme court Friday refused to grant bail to Dokubo, lead of Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), who is standing trial for treasonable felony offences.