| A German oil worker remained in the hands of his Nigerian captors on Sunday three days after he was abducted in the Niger Delta town of Port Harcourt.
No group has claimed responsibility for seizing the German, who had been in Nigeria for three years with the gas and oil services firm Bilfinger Berger. Nigerian authorities expanded their search for the missing man on Sunday, a day after local police expressed optimism that he would soon be free. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Berlin said German officials were in close contact with Nigerian authorities, but declined to provide details of the investigations. There has been a spate of abductions of foreign oil workers in Nigeria this year, mostly by groups demanding a greater share of the oil revenue for the local Niger Delta population. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, but a majority of its population lives in poverty. Two German oil workers were abducted in Nigeria in June last year, but freed after three days in captivity. |
Aug62006