Nigeria’s police chief Mike Okiro Tuesday ordered his staff to crack down on kidnappings in the troubled oil-rich south, where more than 200 expatriates have been seized since January last year.
“In your commands, you should make it a policy…to make sure the idea of kidnapping and hostage taking is forced down,” Okiro told the police chiefs of the southern states.
“We want to make sure that it does not take place again,” he said.
The Niger Delta, home to Nigeria’s multi-billion oil and gas industry, has witnessed a spate of kidnappings in the past 18 months.
The abductions are usually staged by separatist groups claiming to fight for a larger share of the oil wealth for the inhabitants of the volatile region. But other groups kidnap foreign workers and their families for ransom.
The latest kidnapping was last week’s abduction of a three-year-old British girl, Margaret Hill, who was released on Sunday after four days in captivity.