President Goodluck Jonathan Monday ordered security
agencies to take all necessary action to locate and rescue seven foreign
construction workers who were abducted from their camp by a terrorist group in
Bauchi State.
Jonathan, who commiserated with the
family of the guard who was reportedly killed during the attack on Jamaáre,
Bauchi State, wherein the foreigners were kidnapped, assured the relatives of
the foreigners as well as the governments of their countries that the Federal
Government and its security agencies would do everything possible to find their
abductors and ensure the safe release of all those abducted.
An Islamist group, Ansaru, Monday
claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the seven workers.
The president, in a statement by his
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, condemned the
abduction of the workers and reaffirmed the Federal Government’s total
commitment to stamping out terrorism and kidnapping in the country.
He urged all Nigerians and foreigners
in the country to continue to go about their normal businesses with the full
assurance that the government and the national security agencies were working
tirelessly to curb threats to security in all parts of the country.
The attack in Bauchi State last
Saturday was one of the worst incidents targeting foreigners in northern
Nigeria, a region that has seen waves of violence by extremist Islamist groups,
but relatively few kidnappings.
Ansaru is considered a new group with
a rising profile after it claimed responsibility for the abduction of a French
national in December 2012.
Some view it as being directly linked
to Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgency group blamed for the killing of about
two thousand people in northern Nigeria since 2009.
In an email statement sent to
journalists, Ansaru said it was in “the custody of seven persons, which include
Lebanese and their European counterparts working with Setraco,” the
Lebanese-owned company targeted in the attack.
Police in Bauchi said four Lebanese,
one Briton, a Greek citizen and an Italian were among those taken hostage by
gunmen who stormed the site in the town of Jama’are. The assailants shot dead a
security guard.
Ansaru’s two-paragraph statement
cited “the transgressions and atrocities done to the religion of Allah… by the
European countries in many places such as Afghanistan and Mali”.
The group previously listed French
support for the military offensive against Islamist rebels in Mali as a
justification for the December kidnapping.
The document was written in English,
like some past statements. However, others have been written in Hausa, a
language used widely across West Africa.
Residents in Jama’are said Setraco
had evacuated all of its members of staff from the company's compound on Sunday
and a company spokesman told AFP its road project had been stopped.
“There is no way we will continue to
work there because the lives of our colleagues are in danger,” John Ogbamgba
said Monday. “We are all in tears.”
There were separate attacks on a
police station and a prison in Jama’are before the abductions, but no deaths
were reported.
The kidnapping of expatriates has
typically occurred in Nigeria’s oil-rich south, with the hostages released
following a ransom payment.
But such incidents in the North have
been isolated and some analysts fear that Ansaru’s emergence may be a sign of
changing tactics among the Islamist groups operating in northern Nigeria.
The Setraco spokesman said the firm
was particularly worried by the location of the abductions, noting that if the
attack had occurred in the south, “maybe there would be a ransom demand.”
In the north, however, “you don’t get
information,” Ogbamgba said.
Aside from the French national
kidnapped in December whose whereabouts remain unknown, the three other
Westerners kidnapped in the north since 2011 have all been killed.
They include a German engineer
abducted last year as well as a Briton and an Italian seized in 2011, in an
attack the British government linked to Ansaru.
In November, Britain declared the
group a terrorist organisation.
Some experts say that Ansaru’s leader
may be Khalid al-Barnawi, one of the three Nigerian extremists labelled a
“global terrorist” by the United States last year.
The State Department described
al-Barnawi as tied to Boko Haram, “with close links to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb,” Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch.
The governments of Greece and Italy
have confirmed that their citizens were among those taken hostage. Beirut has
acknowledged that two Lebanese nationals were seized, but has not matched the
police figure of four.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary, William Hague
said Monday that London was in touch with the Nigerian authorities following
the reports that a Briton was among the seven workers kidnapped
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