The Department of Foreign Affairs said Sunday that no Filipino was among nine foreign oil workers abducted in Nigeria.
Claro Cristobal, DFA spokesman, told abs-cbnNEWS.com in a text message that Philippine Ambassador to Nigeria Masaranga Umpa confirmed that according to Nigerian authorities the abducted foreigners consisted of four Britons, three Americans, an Indian and a South African.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, for his part, said that the DFA is relieved that no overseas Filipino worker was among those kidnapped.
He, however, called on OFWs planning to work in politically-charged countries such as Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan to respect the government’s deployment ban and restrictions on travel to those nations.
Reports earlier said that a Filipino was among those kidnapped by Nigerian militants amid an upsurge in violence against international oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, an impoverished wetlands region in southern Nigeria which is home to Africa’s biggest oil industry.
Industry sources said the workers — three Americans, four Britons, a South African, a Filipino and a Nigerian — were seized from a pipe-laying vessel contracted to Nigerian oil company Conoil.
Suspected militants in two speed boats exchanged fire with security guards on the vessel during the kidnapping, which took place off the southern state of Bayelsa.
“Some armed men attacked an oil facility and abducted nine foreigners and one Nigerian,” a spokesman for Bayelsa state police said.
The sources had earlier identified the owner of the vessel as Texas-based Transcoastal Corp, but a spokesman for that company said it was not involved.