Still no trace of kidnapped Maltese worker
Around 200 kidnapped from same area in two years
The government is working diplomatic channels in an effort to free the Maltese oil industry worker, George Scerri, who was kidnapped in Nigeria last Friday.
The government yesterday said it had established contact with the Nigerian government through the Nigerian Embassy in Tripoli, but it refused to release any details about Mr Scerri - not even his age.
Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg has contacted Italian foreign affairs undersecretary Enzo Scotti in a bid to use Italy's contacts and experience in the country, since it has dealt with kidnappings of its own nationals there. He has also been in touch with the British High Commission.
Mr Scerri and a Pakistani national were kidnapped in the Niger Delta, in the south of the country.
The two men - who work for Texas-based drilling company Lonestar, which services Nigeria's oil industry - were snatched just two days after one of the country's most prominent armed groups threatened more acts of sabotage against the nation's oil industry, and accused the Nigerian government of insincerity.
Sources told The Sunday Times that the two men were driving without a military escort along a highway connecting two of Nigeria's cities - Ikioi and Obaji - when they were snatched at around 12.30 p.m. Some 200 people were kidnapped from this area in the past two years.
A Nigerian newspaper said Lonestar spokesman Mike Ugoji confirmed the incident and said that security agencies had been contacted to secure the men's release.
This was not the first attack on Lonestar. Nigerian media said the wife of its chairman was kidnapped by unknown gunmen last month and released.
Just last Wednesday, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta said it would continue its campaign of sabotage on the oil industry as long as government was "insincere in the handling of the Niger Delta crisis". The day before armed gunmen kidnapped the wife and three-week-old baby of a politician in the Niger Delta.
In March, a German man was released 12 hours after being seized by an unknown gunman who killed a driver and two soldiers. Last October gunmen in speedboats kidnapped seven workers from an offshore oilfield.
The Niger Delta is home to Africa's biggest oil industry, which produces some 2.1 million barrels of oil a day.
The Nationalist Party, the Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika issued statements yesterday to condemn the kidnapping and expressed solidarity with Mr Scerri and his family.