LAGOS (AFP)--Gunmen have kidnapped a local employee of Agip SpA,
the Nigerian subsidiary of Italian oil group Eni SpA (E), in
Nigeria's volatile oil city of Port Harcourt, an Agip security
official said Wednesday.
James Charles was abducted Tuesday and his kidnappers have
demanded 15 million naira ($101,140) ransom for his release, the
official said.
Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings of local and foreign
workers and relatives of prominent politicians in the past two
years, often by criminal gangs seeking a ransom, but sometimes also
for political ends.
The unrest has reduced Nigeria's oil output by a quarter since
2006.
The country's Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association
union, or PENGASSAN, on Tuesday threatened to pull its members out
of the southern Rivers State next week following an upsurge in
kidnappings of its members there.
Last week, gunmen kidnapped the nine-year-old son of a Nigerian
employee in the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt, and shot dead
his 11-year-old sister who was accompanying him to school, military
spokesman Musa Sagir said.
The PENGASSAN union said it could no longer tolerate the
situation.
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