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20 July, 2010
Following the release in Nigeria early this week of four journalists and their driver, and of a trade union leader of Pengassan, ICEM’s white-collar oil and gas workers’ affiliated union, the Geneva-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) calls on the new government of President Goodluck Jonathan to bolster security, thoroughly investigate and prosecute, and root out rogue elements in law enforcement that may be perpetuating the heinous kidnap-for-ransom industry that again strickens the Niger Delta.
“Crimes of kidnapping, extortion, corruption seriously tarnish Nigeria throughout the world,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “It is up to the new President to eradicate it, to eradicate it in such a way that it is gone forever, and to make sure that those responsible are punished to the full extent of the law.”
The ICEM notes the fact that the recent spate of kidnappings, including the highly publicized abduction of trade unionists leaving the National Executive Council meeting of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) on 11 July, occurred in the states of the Niger Delta. The ICEM is deeply concerned over the safety and security of Nigerian nationals working in the oil and gas sectors of the Delta.
More and more, the targets are Nigerians who have achieved a certain level of prosperity through their work and their technical expertise in energy production. The ICEM points to the recent abduction, and release on 18 July, of Issa Ilbrahim, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (Pengassan) branch chairman of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.’s (NNPC)’s Department of Petroleum Resources.
He was kidnapped in Imo State at an airport along with his wife. His wife was released earlier and Ilbrahim was subsequently released on 18 July after a small ransom was paid. But those who committed this cowardly crime remain free.
The ICEM also calls attention to two Pengassan members – Danjuma Bashir and Malabu Abubakar Ahmad, both NNPC staff at Nigerian Petroleum Development Co. Ltd. – who were abducted in March 2010 near Mosogar village, Delta State, while on their way to a post-graduate programme in energy and petroleum economics at Delta State University. A week later, their decomposed bodies were found in the bush riddled with bullet holes, suggesting they were killed execution style before their bodies were mutilated. Nigerian federal and state police are no closer to solving the case than when they came across the bodies of the trade unionists on 20 March.
The ICEM commends the Nigerian government and police in the investigation, manhunt, and subsequent release of the four journalists and their driver, NUJ Lagos State Council Chair Wahab Obba, NUJ Area Secretary Adolphus Okonkwo, NUJ Lagos State Council Secretary Sylvester Okere, Lagos journalist Sola Oyeyipo, and driver Azeez Yekini. But it also is mindful that this particular kidnapping in the Niger Delta received wide attention, both inside and outside Nigeria.
“The prevailing fear and insecurity caused by the criminal enterprising that carry out these despicable acts is a plague upon Nigeria,” said Warda. “The new federal administration of President Goodluck Jonathan now has the opportunity be act with strength, with force, and without hint of impunity to eliminate this menace. For the betterment of a critical industry to Nigeria, and for Nigerian nationals who are building this industry into global respectability, we call on the President to make this commitment.”
The ICEM is a Global Union Federation, representing 367 industrial trade union affiliates in 132 countries.
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, [email protected], +41 22 304 1842, or +41 79 734 8994 (mobile).