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A Scots oil worker has been kidnapped in southern Nigeria, it was confirmed last night. A security worker said the man was working for an oil services firm in the city of Port Harcourt when he was captured by unidentified gunmen.
The worker was abducted late on November 27 in an upmarket area of the city in the Niger Delta, the hub of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, according to a military spokesman. No group had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Kidnappings carried out for ransom are numerous in the Niger Delta. Since early 2006, over 200 hundred foreigners including 42 British nationals have been captured in the area. However most have been released unharmed. The oil worker is the sixth Scot to be taken hostage in the Niger Delta area over the past two years.
Paul Smith, from Peterhead, Graham McLean, of Elgin, Sandy Cruden, from Inverurie, and Graeme Buchan, also from the north-east, were held in captivity for three weeks in 2006. Aberdeen-born David Melford, 65, was released last month after being held hostage for nearly three weeks, during which time he was subjected to mock executions in which kidnappers put an unloaded gun to his head and pulled the trigger as they demanded a £250,000 ransom.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the largest militant group in the region, is still detaining two Britons it claimed it had "rescued" in early October after pirates seized them from an oil supply vessel on September 9.
MEND has said it is holding the two men as leverage for the release of its suspected leader, Henry Okah, who is on trial in the central city of Jos on treason and gun-running charges.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has urged British nationals in the area to leave, and warned against all travel to the Niger Delta states of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers, including Port Harcourt. It also said that there was an established policy to not make any significant concessions to kidnappers. "The British Government considers that paying ransoms increases the risk of further hostage taking," it said.
A spokesman from the FCO said the Nigerian authorities will lead in the enquiry into the most recent abductions and the government would be in "close contact with them".
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