A Research Fellow at the Centre for Advance Social Study in Port Harcourt, Dr Sofiri Peterside, has expressed worry about the incessant cases of expatriate kidnap in the Niger Delta Region.
He said that the frequency of the crime in some states in the region had created an impression that the governments of these states were in business with the perpetrators.
Sofiri in a paper delivered in Port Harcourt on Wednesday entitled, �The Role of Community in Natural Resource Management in the Niger Delta,� wondered how government officials were able to establish contacts with abductors immediately after kidnap cases to begin negotiations.
He said many state governments hid the ransoms paid under security budget.
According to him, kidnap cases have become one project where no account is rendered on ransom paid by the governments.
He stated that hostage taking was employed by youths of the region to draw attention to the state of the region when it first started.
Peterside noted that the crime had become a business venture with some state governments as principals.
He urged the perpetrators of the acts to desist from doing so, adding that kidnap was not a way out of the problems of the region.
The expert urged the Federal Government to address the problems of the regions, saying that it would be the solution to the Niger Delta crisis.
He suggested the inclusion of the oil producing communities in the management of the resources as a way out of the current crisis in the region.
Sofiri dismissed the Akasa model where power over natural resources moved from the traditional authority to other levels of authorities.
He said thatoil companies sponsoring communities in the region to pattern their developmental after Akasa model should understand that the social and political make up of the various communities in the region vary.