petroleum minister has been kidnapped in the oil hub of
Port Harcourt, police said Friday, in the latest abduction
targeting a prominent political family.
Osio Agama, whose sister Diezani Alison-Madueke leads
Africa's largest oil industry, was seized at gunpoint as she
approached her car on Tuesday night, Rivers state police
spokesman Ahmad Muhammad said.
Muhammad said police "were not aware if any ransom
demand had been made" and the motive for the abduction
was unknown but the southern oil-producing Niger Delta
region has seen waves of ransom kidnappings in recent
years.
One of the most prominent cases came in December 2012,
when Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's 82-year-old
mother Kamene Okonjo was abducted from her home, in
neighboring Delta state.
Okonjo-Iweala and Alison-Madueke are widely seen as the
two most powerful members of President Goodluck
Jonathan's cabinet.
Jonathan's 70-year-old uncle was also kidnapped earlier
this year in Bayelsa state, also in the Niger Delta.
Some have sought to attach a political motive to attacks
targeting Nigeria's most powerful families.
The finance minister implied that her mother was seized
because of her ministry's crackdown on oil companies
which had abused the country's rotten fuel subsidy scheme.
But such links were never proven and Kamene Okonjo was
released a week after her abduction.
The security forces and affected families almost never
confirm ransom payments but most believe kidnappers in
the Niger Delta are seeking financial gain.
Despite producing roughly two million barrels of oil per
day, the area remains acutely poor with high
unemployment.
Gang activity is rampant and kidnappings have at times
been perpetrated on a near weekly basis.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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