No Pinoy in latest Nigeria kidnap – DFA

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed yesterday that there was no Filipino in the latest kidnapping of six foreign workers in Nigeria.

The Philippine Embassy in Nigeria reported to the DFA that the abduction on Friday night involved two Polish and four Indian nationals.

Philippine Ambassador to Nigeria Masaranga Umpa informed Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Esteban Conejos that the foreign workers were abducted in Port Harcourt.

“Ambassador Umpa called me last night and informed me that the latest kidnapping incident involved six foreign workers and there were no Filipinos among those abducted,” Conejos said in the weekly radio program “Para Sa Iyo Bayan” of Vice President Noli de Castro.

According to reports, gunmen in speedboats kidnapped the six workers from an oil vessel off Nigeria’s coast at dawn. It was the second attack on an oil field in a week, officials said.

The vessel Mystras, used for production, storage and offloading crude oil, is capable of producing 80,000 barrels of oil per day.

Militants have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners this year to press demands for local control of oil revenues in the oil-rich country. The attacks since late 2005 have cut Nigeria’s regular output by about 20 percent, helping send crude prices toward all-time highs.

Filipino electrical supervisor Albert Bacani Sr., who was released by armed men last Sept. 27, was the last Filipino worker kidnapped in Nigeria. His abductors released him after two weeks in captivity. – Pia Lee Brago, AP