Nigerian army says 63 arrested over kidnappings

The Nigerian army said yesterday it had arrested a militant leader and 62 of his followers suspected of involvement in a string of recent kidnappings of oil workers, including foreigners.

The military said it smoked out the gang in an operation that lasted eight hours when its troops encircled a camp in southern Nigeria’s main oil producing region last Friday.

The precise number of arrests emerged when the gang was paraded before the media at an airforce base in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, said spokesman for a special unit deployed in the Niger Delta, Timothy Antigha, who earlier spoke of more than 50 arrests.

The gang leader and 62 others were rounded up after special military forces raided a camp in oil-rich Rivers state in southern Nigeria, he said.

He said the gang was responsible for the kidnapping of 19 oil workers, including several foreigners, in recent weeks.

“They were the group that abducted the Exxon Mobil workers and the Afren group workers and were responsible for other previous kidnappings and robberies in the past,” said Antigha. A group of workers for construction firm Julius Berger were also rescued from the gang.

The military had in an operation last Wednesday night freed the 19 hostages from the creeks of the Niger Delta region, the heart of one of the world’s largest oil industries. The victims included American, Canadian, French, Indonesian and Nigerian nationals.

The gang was captured from Bokokiri in Degema local government area of Rivers state during a daytime operation last Friday, a senior military official told AFP.

“We had surrounded the whole place...so they had to surrender. They were forced to surrender because of fire power,” said the official who took part in the raid.

“They didn’t deny any of the crimes and said they are sorry for what they did,” the source told AFP.

In total, two Americans, two French, two Indonesians, a Canadian and 12 Nigerians were kidnapped in recent weeks.

The main Nigerian militant group MEND had last Friday threatened more kidnappings of oil workers after the military rescued the 19 hostages earlier.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had claimed responsibility for 14 of the hostages. The relationship between MEND and the arrested gang could not be immediately established.