4 U.S. Workers Abducted in the Restive Niger-Delta

Gunmen abducted four U.S. oil workers in the oil-rich Niger-Delta region on the 9th day of May, 2007. The U.S. oil workers were reported to have been abducted from a barge off a coast near Chevron’s Escravos crude export terminal in Warri, Delta state. According to reports, the barge operated by U.S. contractors, Global Industries was laying pipelines for Chevron at its Okan oil field, when the oil workers were attacked by militants who stormed the barge in two speed-boats with riffles and rocket-propelled grenades. The abducted contractors are believed to be employees of Global Marine Systems, a U.K based company. This recent abduction of four U.S. oil workers takes the total number of foreigners still in captivity to 13. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), one of the militancy groups in the region believed to be responsible for most of the recent cases of abduction witnessed in the Niger-Delta, has told all oil workers to leave the region and vowed to bring Nigerian exports to a complete halt to press its case for more autonomy from the federal government. It has also demanded the release of two jailed Ijaw leaders and $1.5 billion compensation to Niger Delta villages for decades of oil spills, just as thousands of foreign oil workers have fled Nigeria since the upsurge in militant attacks in February 2006.
  The group has persistently vowed to bring shame to the out-going President Olusegun Obasanjo led administration, which is due to hand over to the next administration come May 29. But in my opinion, no amount of effort can possibly brig shame to the President Olusegun Obasanjo led administration as this on-going administration has done immensely well in transforming the nation’s economy. Olusegun Obasanjo has done well as a President. Not that there are no flaws in his administration but on the whole, I rate him good. However, we next administration will have to tackle issues of the Niger-Delta region and ensure the spate of violence in the region is arrested whilst still ensuring better infrastructural development within the region. But will this happen? Only time will tell. But in the interest of the country’s oil and energy sector, it had better.