Ijaw youths abduct policemen

Militant Ijaw youths in Odi, a village in Bayelsa State, have kidnapped seven policemen, news reports said. The hostages, from the Yoruba ethnic group, include two senior officers, the reports said. Reuters quoted a leader of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) as saying the youths were retaliating against clashes last week in a Lagos neighbourhood between migrant Ijaws and local Yorubas in which at least 12 people died. A Lagos daily, ‘The Guardian’ said the hostages were taken “to ensure that Afenifere (a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group) and Egbe Omo Yoruba (another ethnic organisation) stopped attacks against (the) Ijaw in Lagos.” The newspaper quoted an IYC source as saying at the weekend that the release of the policemen “would depend on whether or not the Afenifere and Egbe Omo Yoruba said something”. Since the death in 1998 of military strongman General Sani Abacha, militant youth groups in the troubled Delta region have been kidnapping employees of transnational oil companies operating in the area. This is the first reported abduction of ranking police officers.