Niger Delta Militants Kidnap 9 Oil Workers (AllAfrica.com)
on February 20th, 2006 at 12:06 amThis Day (Lagos)
NEWS
February 18, 2006
Posted to the web February 19, 2006
By Segun James
Warri
{Excerpted}
Barely 10 hours after helicopter gunship of the Nigeria Air Force launched the second in the series of planned raids on oil bunkerers in the Niger Delta at the Ijaw community of Okerenkoko, Ijaw militants in retaliation yesterday hit four oil industry facilities in the area and in the process kidnapped nine expatriates.
The militants also set on fire the multi- billion dollar Forcados Oil Terminal Loading Platform. The resultant inferno has however been extinguished.
The attack on the oil facilities and kidnap of the nine oil workers led President Olusegun Obasanjo to convene a security council meeting after he came back from the convocation ceremony of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
But in an e-mailed statement, the militants listed those kidnapped as three Americans – Malcolm Hawkins, Cowdy Oswalt and Pussel Spell; a Briton, John Hudsmith; two Egyptians, Shadety Senary and Feisal Mohammed; two Thais, Semsak Mhadmhe and Arab Suwani and a Phillipino, Anthony Santos.
The militants, sources said, also blew up the Escravos- Lagos pipeline and went ahead to threaten users of the Warri Airport built by Shell. As a result of the activities of the militants, the airport is said to have been shut down. (more…)
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Learn more about the Ijaw militants here
