Construction workers down tools over colleagues’ kidnap

Employees of a construction company based in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, have stopped work at the project site of the Niger Delta Development Commission in Patani, Delta State, over the abduction of three of their colleagues.

The aggrieved workers, who were worried about their colleagues’ whereabouts and state of health, demanded their immediate release and insisted that they would not return to work at the site until adequate security was provided for them.

Two expatriates and a Nigerian working for OKMAS Nigeria Limited were kidnapped on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, by a group of seven gunmen, who stormed the project site in Patani, Delta State.

While the three employees are being held hostage by their captors, the workers expressed worry that the kidnappers had not been able to establish contact with the families of their victims or their organisation.

The Public Relations Manager of OKMAS Nigeria Limited, Mr. Owhondah Ebere, identified the kidnapped employees as Sari Naser Karin, a Syrian, Tarek Maroun, a Lebanese, while the Nigerian was simply identified as Sahara.

Ebere, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Monday, expressed concern that the whereabouts of the kidnapped workers were still unknown five days after their abduction.

“The whereabouts of two expatriates and a Nigerian, who were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 10.30am, in Patani area, Delta state, is still unknown.

“They are staff of OKMAS Nigeria limited handling the Patani-Oduophori road project for the Niger Delta Development Commission.

         

“The gunmen, numbering about seven, all armed with AK-47 rifles and dressed in military attires, stormed the project site and whisked away the three employees to an unknown destination.

“They (gunmen) came in speedboats through the Sagbama creek to Agoloma-Toru-Apalabiri community and subsequently escaped via the same route,” Ebere said.

Describing the abduction of the company’s employees as the first time his organisation would experience such incident since the commencement of the project in 2013, OKMAS PR Manager said he had reported the matter to Patani Police Station, the Delta State Police Command and the Department of State Security Command in Asaba.