A Dutchman abducted on Thursday in Nigeria’s violent oil-producing Niger Delta is in good health but his kidnappers’ demands are not yet known, a spokesman for Bayelsa state in the delta said on Friday.
Gunmen seized the man, who was working on an unfinished Shell gas plant in Bayelsa, from a houseboat after disarming police on guard. It was the latest in a series of attacks on the oil and gas industry that have shut down a quarter of Nigeria’s crude output since February.
“State authorities have made contact with him. He is safe and well,” said Conrad Welson Ekyor, a spokesman for Bayelsa state.
“We are doing everything possible to release him. We don’t have their demands yet. For now it’s still a very confidential operation,” Ekyor said.
He added that the hostage had been taken into Delta state, which adjoins Bayelsa to the west.
The abducted man was employed by Westminster Dredging, a sub-contractor to the Nigerian arm of Shell working on the Gbaran gas gathering project.
The kidnap followed a protest by youths demanding jobs and investments for their community, according to the Ijaw Youth Council which seeks to represent the delta’s biggest ethnic group.
Attacks on oil facilities or abductions of oil workers by groups who accuse oil companies of failing to meet community development pledges are frequent in the Niger Delta.
Most hostages in the Niger Delta are freed unharmed. Oil companies deny paying ransoms but local activists say the practice is common and fuels the cycle of violence.
The abduction of the Dutchman came a day after gunmen tried to attack an offshore oil rig, also in Bayelsa state, and took captive a retired naval employee working as a security guard for Nigerian firm Conoil .
The impoverished delta, home to Africa’s biggest oil industry, has been plagued by violence for years. Many local people feel cheated out of the wealth being pumped from their lands and creeks, and their resentment fuels militancy.
A breakdown in law and order in the impenetrable delta, combined with easy access to guns, struggles for control of a lucrative oil smuggling business and corruption among politicians and security forces have worsened the violence.
The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands greater local control over oil revenues and the release of two jailed Ijaw leaders, has launched a series of bloody attacks this year.
There was no indication of any connection between MEND and the Dutchman’s abduction. MEND has kidnapped 18 foreign oil workers this year but all have been released safely.