BAYELSA STATE: GUNMEN ON RAMPAGE KIDNAP LEBANESE, KILL SOLDIER

Police officials in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region say at least one Soldier was killed after gunmen abducted a Lebanese construction worker.


The shootout occurred on Tuesday in Bayelsa state, Tv360 News reports.

Pipeline attacks and violence have been on the rise in the swampland since authorities issued an arrest warrant in January for a former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo on corruption charges.

“One Lebanese, Ramzi Bau Hadir, aged 53 years, was kidnapped by the armed bandits,” said Butswat Asinim, a police spokesman in Bayelsa state. A resident said a second foreigner had been kidnapped but Asinim did not confirm this.

Attacks have been on the rise for weeks in the Delta, which provides most of Nigeria’s oil and gas wealth. Militant groups have long demanded a greater share of the mineral wealth and an end to oil pollution in the region.

Last month gunmen blew up an oil pipeline belonging to Italy’s ENI, killing three workers who had been repairing the pipe, according to officials.

In February militants staged a sophisticated underwater attack, probably using divers, on a Shell pipeline, shutting down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal.

President Muhammadu Buhari, elected a year ago, has extended the multi-million dollar amnesty deal with the militants in 2009, but he has upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts.

The amnesty deal was first signed by Nigeria’s late President, Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009. It was aimed at reducing unrest in the oil-rich region.

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