Unidentified gunmen have opened fire on two Lebanese workers in southern Nigeria’s Rivers State, killing one on Friday, police and industry sources said.
“The men were shot early this morning. We believe they were on their way to the airport when they were attacked. One died immediately while the other was seriously injured,” a senior police officer told AFP, refusing to be identified.
An oil industry source in Port Harcourt, the hub of Nigeria’s oil industry, said the Lebanese nationals, believed to be construction workers, were attacked on Isiokpe road in Ikwerre Local Government Area.
The details of Friday’s attack were sketchy, coming a day after the region’s most vocal separatist group threatened retaliation against the Italian oil firm Agip and a state government over the release of a Lebanese oil worker which it claimed escaped.
Lebanese diplomatic sources in Abuja announced Wednesday that the worker abducted since December 7 had been freed and was “safe and well” after undergoing a medical check-up.
But the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) said the man escaped. “It was an escape hatched by (oil firm) Agip and the Bayelsa State government.”
“Agip and the Bayelsa State government will pay a hefty price for this slight,” the armed group threatened in an email to AFP.
Two of the Italians abducted with Saliba are still being held by MEND. The third was freed on January 18 because of health problems.
MEND has the highest profile among a number of groups operating in the Niger Delta who are seeking to highlight alleged imbalances in the distribution of oil wealth in the region.
Since the beginning of this year, 55 foreigners have been kidnapped by separatist groups and armed gangs in southern Nigeria, almost as many as for the whole of 2006. Most of them have been released.