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Gunmen
Seize Scottish Oil Worker In Nigerian Delta
Gunmen have kidnapped a Scottish man working for an oil
services firm in the southern Nigerian oil city of Port
Harcourt, military and diplomatic officials said on
Friday.
The man was kidnapped late on Thursday in the main city
in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa's biggest
oil and gas industry, military spokesman Lieutenant
Colonel Sagir Musa said.
A British High Commission spokeswoman in the capital
Abuja confirmed the abduction.
Kidnappings for ransom are frequent in the Niger Delta.
More than 200 hundred foreigners have been seized in the
region since early 2006, most of whom have been released
unharmed.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
(MEND), the main militant group in the region, is still
holding two Britons it said it had "rescued" in early
October after pirates seized them from an oil supply
vessel on Sept. 9.
MEND has said it is holding the two men as leverage for
the release of its suspected leader, Henry Okah, who is
on trial in the central city of Jos on treason and
gun-running charges. (Additional reporting by Nick
Tattersall in Lagos and Randy Fabi in Abuja; Editing by
Michael Roddy)
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