Sharp rise in hostage taking may be linked to upcoming elections

Almost as many people were taken hostage in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta region in the month of January as in the whole of 2006, with some analysts accusing candidates in the upcoming elections of using ransom money to support their campaigns.

“On the one hand the upswing in kidnappings is criminally driven by people who want money for themselves," Nnamdi Obasi, senior analyst for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group, told IRIN. “But some of them are also working for political campaigns that need funds.”

“It's like an industry,” he said.

In the month of January at least 50 foreigners were taken hostage, two of whom were killed. That compares to a total of around 70 foreigners snatched in the whole of 2006. Most of the kidnap victims are non-Nigerians working in the oil industry. Victims have included American, European, and Asian workers.

Members of the ruling party are mostly accused in the local media of diverting oil money from government accounts for their campaigns, while opposition members are often accused of getting their funds from illegal activities such as the tapping of oil pipelines.

Voting for all levels of government is to take place over three weeks in April. The elections will be the first in Nigeria in which one elected civilian president is to hand over power to another.

Some hostage-taking is motivated by groups with genuine grievances that the oil is not benefiting the region, according to Ike Onyekwere, another political analyst in Nigeria. But Onyekwere said it is mostly perpetrated by local criminal gangs and pirates who also attack locals travelling by boats through the delta.

“And the unrest is looking increasingly difficult to rein in,” he added.

The political groups try to distance themselves from the criminals by insisting that they are freedom fighters. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), one of the most active armed groups, is not even asking for money in exchange for hostages.

Rather they are demanding that the government release political prisoners such as the governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alameiseigha and that the country revert back to its 1960 constitution which gave states control of 50 percent of all revenue produced within the state. The current constitution gives states control of only 10 percent.

Last week police reported that MEND supporters fought a gun battle with security forces at a police station in Port Harcourt, the main town in the oil producing region, freeing one of their leaders as well as 125 other prisoners.

Other violence appears to be aimed at undermining the elections. In early February an armed group reportedly mounted a road block to stop truck loads of supporters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party from getting to a rally in Port Harcourt.

"I'm worried that most youth don’t care about the elections and some armed groups are threatening to disrupt it," said Ikiogha Tortobor, a politician running for chairman of Warri South-West local council in the Niger Delta.

"People like us are trying to convince them that there is hope in the system, but it's been hard winning them over," Tortobor said.

In an interview last week with Voice of America Peter Okocha, a candidate for the opposition Action Congress Party denied accusations that his supporters were responsible for the recent capture of a laden cargo ship with 24 Filipino crewmen on board.

But he also said he supported the aims of such groups.

“They’re only trying to only make a point. This is our problem. Help us tell the outside world that the government of the state has failed us,” Okocha said.

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