NIGERIA: Security tight on the streets of Port Harcourt after assasination of an American oil executive

Record ID: 236426

  • Title: NIGERIA: Security tight on the streets of Port Harcourt after assasination of an American oil executive
  • Date: 11th May 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF STREET
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA10GSKZHLW27KSVY0C9DORGQRR
  • Story Text: Nigerian police threw a security cordon around the southern city of Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta on Wednesday (May 10) after a gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed an American oil executive in an apparently planned assaination.
    In further trouble in the city, at least two foreign oil workers, including one Italian, were kidnapped from a car under police escort on Thursday (May 11).
    A militant group waging a five-month-old campaign of attacks against the industry said it was not involved in the abduction, which police and oil industry sources attributed to a community dispute.
    Police checked vehicles and pedestrians on the roads in and around Port Harcourt, creating huge traffic jams.
    Port Harcourt is the largest city in the Niger Delta and several oil companies have major offices there. The city suffers from sporadic outbreaks of bloody gang violence and there have been several deadly armed robbery recently.
    But the militants who have been waging a five-month campaign against the oil industry in the Delta on Wednesday denied being involved in the death of the executive, who worked for Texan Oil industry company Barker Hughes.
    The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta people (MEND) has bombed oil facilities, kidnapped several foreign oil workers and recently embarked on a car bombing campaign.
    Their attacks have forced multinational oil companies to cut Nigeria oil exports by a quarter, and they have threatened to carry out more attacks on oil industry targets and individuals.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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