A Nigerian oil worker who was abducted in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta has died, the head of an oil workers’ union said on Thursday without giving any further details about the circumstances.
The union leader was addressing a meeting with labour ministry officials to discuss spiralling violence in the delta, where 38 foreign workers are being held hostage by separate armed groups and where oil production is down by a fifth.
“The burning issue now is the security of our lives,” said Peter Esele, head of the white-collar PENGASSAN oil union.
“One glaring angle to show you how we view the issue of security is that yesterday our comrade was kidnapped and this morning he is dead. We don’t need any other evidence to tell you why we are angry,” he said.
Esele said the man worked for petroleum exploration firm Addax . It was not immediately possible to reach Addax officials for comment.
Two security experts working for Western oil majors in the delta said a Nigerian worker was kidnapped on Tuesday morning from an oil well operated by Addax in Akwa Ibom state, in the eastern delta.
But they were not aware of any death and it was not clear if this was the same incident.
Violence surged in the Niger Delta in 2006 and it has worsened since the start of the year, although Akwa Ibom has been much calmer than neighbouring Rivers state.
Two expatriates and many Nigerians have died in a string of attacks and robberies across the delta.
Kidnappings for ransom are an almost daily occurrence in the Niger Delta, where poverty and a total collapse of public services fuel resentment towards the multi-billion-dollar oil industry.
It is unusual for hostages to die while in captivity. A Briton and a Nigerian were killed last year during separate botched attempts by security forces to free them.
Union leaders say their members in the delta want to stage a work stoppage over the lack of security from Monday, although it remains unclear whether a strike will be called formally.
Energy Minister Edmund Daukoru has tried to persuade union leaders to stave off a strike by promising that they would meet President Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss the crisis, and a union leader said the meeting had been set for Monday.
Militant attacks in the delta last year forced the closure of a fifth of oil production capacity from Nigeria, the world’s eighth-biggest exporter. That output has yet to resume.