Kidnapping for ransom has become a booming business in Nigeria’s oil producing region, the Niger Delta, and as the country prepares for April’s general elections, the trend sees no sign of waning.
In the past year, violence and kidnapping in the Delta has spiralled.
More than 100 foreign workers have been abducted, some by militant groups fighting for local control of the oil wealth.
But increasingly hostages have been taken by gangs of gunmen seeking ransoms.
As a result some companies have pulled out, those that remain live under increasingly tight security.
‘Getting jumpy’
“There were always troubles with various groups. But over the last year, the trouble’s moved into town,” said one oil worker living in a guarded compound in Port Harcourt.
“Before it was rather remote, happening in the swamps or way out of town in the bush, but then it came into town and that’s when the curfew was introduced,” explained the man, who wished to remain anonymous.
“Those of us who are here, tend to belong to a group of expats, who’ve been around the world, seen a lot of things. So it does take a lot to faze them.
“But even so they are getting fazed, they are getting weary. Even I when I go out of the compound with my driver, we look both ways to see if there is anyone who might want to take me, see if there’s a car who might try and block us to take me away. So we are not exactly neurotic, but we getting a bit jumpy, a bit nervous.”
Lockdown
So on the streets of Port Harcourt, few foreigners venture out without an armed escort.
Thousands of workers have left, many companies who remain are operating a lockdown on the compounds where workers live.
No-one is allowed out.
Those who work for the oil majors, like Shell and Chevron, can be housed in huge, relatively well-guarded, compounds. Even so, militants managed to plant a car bomb inside a Shell compound late last year.
Those most at risk work for contractors working in the industry both in the city and in the more remote countryside.
But now, even non oil sector foreigners have been kidnapped.
From pauper to rich man
Last year, initially most of those kidnapped were held by militants, who say they are fighting for local control of the oil wealth, and have been demanding the release of two prominent local leaders – including imprisoned militant Mujahid Dokubo Asari.
But increasingly, criminal gangs have become responsible for the bulk of the hostage takings.
Kidnapping has become a huge lucrative business.
“A lot of people know who is involved. You will know someone today who is a pauper, but once the man succeeded in a hostage taking, he is a rich man,” explains Casi, a former gang member.
“So this is motivating others to take hostages.
“Six, seven people can get together, get a rifle and take some white people hostage. Maybe after five days the government will come and negotiate and release them. There are groups who are doing this thing just because of the ransom.”
Gangs ‘protected’
The Nigerian military faces a difficult task. Violence fuelled by poverty and neglect has been on the rise for years.
But with elections approaching, many say politicians are protecting the gangs, because they want to use them to rig elections.
More generally, the army is ill-equipped to patrol the creeks and forests of the Delta, an area about the size of Scotland – where the gangs take their hostages.
Brigadier general Samuel Saliyu is the top commander in Port Harcourt and says ultimately the solution to the violence is political not military.
“There is political will, but there are some in the political elite who are criminalizing, colluding and conniving.
“It’s making our job difficult.”
Chronic under-development
In the waterfront area of Port Harcourt, people are poor, living in densely packed houses and shacks. In the distance where the shacks end, a high walled oil company compound stands, with all the amenities one would find in the West.
Some Italian oil workers were kidnapped near here, last year. Residents say they do not approve of kidnapping, but say it’s driven by poverty.
“It all boils down to under-development of the Niger Delta,” said one local butcher.
“If you look at it they are unemployed, but they can see that this region produces the oil which makes the country rich, while they don’t have anything. So if you address this thing, I think the kidnapping problem will be OK.”
It’s pretty much undeniable that the more general malaise in the Delta is down to poverty and unemployment, largely the consequence of decades of government corruption and neglect.
But other parts of Nigeria are poor, too.
It’s just that in the Delta – where there’s places to hide, plenty of ex-pats, political collusion, and an easily applicable cause – kidnapping for ransom has become a safe, booming business.