BONNY—AN attempt by soldiers to rescue seven foreign oil workers abducted early yesterday in Rivers State ended on a tragic note after one of the abducted men and four abductors were killed in a gun battle between the soldiers and the kidnappers.

At least one other abducted oil workers was wounded. But the soldiers succeeded in freeing the remaining hostages.

“During the attempt by Nigerian military marines to free the seven hostages on the FPSO Mystrars, gunfire was exchanged during which a hostage was killed while six others, one of whom was wounded, were freed and are safe,” the Italian oil group, Eni, owners of the oil facility said on its website last night.
Eni did not give the nationality of the dead or injured hostage, but it had earlier identified the kidnapped oil workers as one Italian, one Briton, a Filipino, two Finns, a Pole and a Romanian.

Vanguard gathered that most of the hostage-takers were arrested.
A source told Vanguard: “After the militants had successfully kidnapped the seven oil workers, they were retreating into the creeks and ran into a patrol team of the armed forces and there was a heavy exchange of gun fire. During the process, one of the expatriates was killed and another seriously wounded. Quite a number of the militants were killed and others arrested. As it is, I doubt if any of the militants was able to escape from either being killed or arrested.

“I can tell you that there is a serious tension in the expatriate community in the oil industry. The issue of insecurity in the oil producing areas has taken a dangerous dimension. This is the first time an expatriate worker would be killed since the kidnapping problem started. Earlier in the year, a Nigerian employee of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Nelson Ujeya, was killed in similar circumstances.”

This development came barely 24 hours after gunmen attacked the office of an NGO, Academic Associates Peace Works, run by an American in Port Harcourt, Dr Judith Asuni, killing two persons on the spot.