PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has said until government investigate the alleged involvement of top government officials and traditional rulers in the increasing hostage takings in the Niger Delta and bring to book those found culpable, there may not be solution to cases of kidnapping in the region.
PENGASSAN in a statement by its General Secretary, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile, condemned what it called the overzealousness of Nigerian security men in the death of an expatriate oil worker and wounds sustained by another working for Saipem Nigeria Limited (a member of Eni Group) in last week�s hostage rescue.
The senior oil workers association lamented that it is increasingly becoming very doubtful if the Federal Government could holistically address the Niger Delta problems.
The association said �the fact that this killing is coming less than five (5) months after the killing of our member in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) who was on official assignment at Letugbene Community brings to the fore the inadequacy of apparatus employed by security agencies to ensure the protection, security and safety of the oil workers who are engaged in baking the national cake which is shared to all the organs of Government.
“As a union, we see that kidnapping of oil workers for ransom has become a stock in trade of a powerful cabal in the Niger Delta Region.
While the non-involvements of top government officials, politicians, chiefs and other highly placed network individuals operating in the Region in these myriads of kidnappings in the region is seriously doubted, the sincerity on the part of the Government to holistically address the problems bedeviling the Niger Delta Region with a view to end the kidnapping is also in doubt�.