Eight foreign oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria

Eight foreign workers have been abducted from an oil rig off the coast of Southern Nigeria Gilbert da Costa, this incident will compound the worries within oil industry, which has been frequently targeted for kidnappings and attacks.

Nigerian authorities have intensified their efforts to contact the gunmen who kidnapped eight oil workers from an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria.

These attacks are embarrassing for the Nigerian Authorities, and particularly President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has held several meeting with hostile groups of delta region demanding a greater share of the oil wealth in the delta.

Daniel Ebahor is of the Niger Delta Youth Foundation, which recently embarked on a peace campaign in the delta.

A group of more than twenty gunmen in speeding boats kidnapped the foreign oil workers in the blinding darkness of night-time. Six of the seized are from Britain; one is a Canadian and one from US.

An ethnic group Ijaw Militants, has started a campaign to attack the refineries here since Feb, leading to twenty five percent cut in Niger’s average oil production.

Presently there is no indication of any link between the kidnappers and the group, which is campaigning for greater control over oil resources.