Two Indian employees of a petrochemical firm were kidnapped on Saturday by gunmen in the Nigerian oil heartland of Port Harcourt, police said on Sunday.
On Saturday an army spokesman had said three Indians were abducted from their residence by suspected militants armed with dynamite and machine guns.
Violence has surged in Africa’s top oil producer since February 2006, cutting a third of Nigeria’s output and forcing thousands of expatriates to evacuate from the volatile region.
“There were two people abducted. They were taken in a bus to the waterfront and transferred to a boat in handcuffs,” Rivers state police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu told Reuters.
Indian authorities have said the men’s employer, Eleme Petrochemical Company, majority-owned by Indonesia’s Indorama, had received a ransom demand from the hostage-takers.
The militants had initially taken 10 workers from the residence but soldiers engaged them in a gunfight and rescued the others. A Nigerian driver was killed in the crossfire.
The family of one of the hostages, 32-year-old Debashish Kakoty, said they were shocked and are praying for the release of the pair, Indian media reported on Sunday. The other hostage is Sunil Dave.
“Our daughter in-law from Nigeria told us by telephone that the company management has established links with the abductors and negotiations were on for securing their release,” Ajit Kakoty, a retired professor and father of the kidnapped fire engineer told IANS Sunday.
“We are shocked after hearing about the abduction. We are left with no option other than praying for their safety and early release,” Kakoty said.
Around 14 foreign workers are being held by different militant groups in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region where all of Nigeria’s crude oil is produced. Some of the groups have made political demands, while others are ransom seekers whose activities have blurred the line between militancy and crime.
About 100 foreigners have been taken hostage in the Niger Delta since January, but most of them were freed after their employers paid illegal ransoms.
Much of the violence is fed by widespread resentment against the oil industry which has extracted billions of dollars from the impoverished southern delta, but left the people with no infrastructure and social benefits.