Obasanjo orders crackdown to curb oil region hostage taking

President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered an immediate security crackdown on armed gangs in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta region after hostage takers seized 14 expatriate oil workers in the past fortnight. “We are going to be firm and say ‘no’ to violence and hostage-taking,” Obasanjo said after a top-level national security meeting in the capital Abuja on Tuesday. “Wherever we find hostage-takers now, we will hunt them down. We will not accept this any longer,” he was quoted as saying in an official statement. Governors of the key oil region states of Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta attended the meeting along with military and police chiefs as well as representatives of oil multinationals operating in the Niger Delta. Despite the Niger Delta’s massive oil reserves the 70,000 sq km region’s more than 20 million inhabitants remain largely impoverished, fuelling widespread resentment against the Nigerian government and oil companies. Hostage-takers often demand ransom or jobs and amenities for their communities in return for the release of their captives. Obasanjo said as Nigeria is a signatory to international conventions categorising seizure of hostages in non-conflict situations as terrorism, Nigeria was ready to hunt down those responsible for the recent attacks and meet them “force for force”. He ordered the setting up of joint military and police operations at strategic locations in the delta region as well as round-the-clock patrol of the country’s coastal waters to enable rapid response to attacks by militants and armed gangs. Four foreign oil workers seized from a supply vessel offshore Bayelsa state last week were freed by their captors on Tuesday. The two Ukrainians and two Norwegians are employees of Norwegian oil service company Trico Supply. Bayelsa police commissioner Hafiz Ringim said no ransom had been paid to secure their release. However, hostage taking has become big business as the hostage taking gangs believe ransoms will be paid. Two British nationals, an Irish and a Polish citizen seized by gunmen from a nightclub in the oil industry hub of Port Harcourt on Sunday night are yet to be released. Also being held is a German abducted in the same city last week. In recent years some armed militia groups in the delta have resorted to political demands, seeking local control of the oil wealth that is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy. Attacks since the beginning of the year on oil installations claimed by the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have cut a quarter of Nigeria’s daily exports of 2.5 million barrels. MEND has distanced itself from the recent spate of kidnappings. dm/cs/ss