EXTRACT: The kidnappings follow a series of attacks on the oil industry in February which forced Royal Dutch Shell to evacuate hundreds of workers from oilfields in the western delta, reducing the Opec member nation’s output by a quarter.
THE REUTERS ARTICLE
By Austin Ekeinde
Port Harcourt – A German oil worker taken hostage in Nigeria was freed overnight unharmed after two weeks in captivity, a state government spokesperson said on Saturday.
The release of Guido Schiffarth was unconnected to a military raid, also on Friday night, on a suspected militant hideout on the outskirts of Port Harcourt, the largest city in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, authorities said.
“I was well treated and respected,” Schiffarth was quoted as saying by a spokesperson for the Rivers State government.
The 62-year-old employee of Bilfinger and Berger was snatched from his car by men disguised as soldiers in Port Harcourt on August 3, one of six separate abductions in Africa’s top oil producer this month.
There are now seven foreign workers in captivity – two Britons, an American, a German, a Pole, an Irish and a Lebanese – while 10 have been released.
Nobody was killed in Friday’s raid in Port Harcourt, but several people were arrested and several others were beaten as troops and police combed the riverside slum area of Ilabuchi and Eagle Island.
“The soldiers came looking for the bad boys,” said a resident who gave his name as Adolphus.
“They have been using this area to terrorise Port Harcourt.”
There were still more than 100 soldiers and police in the area on Saturday, backed up by helicopter gunships overhead and four navy gunboats on the creek.
“The soldiers were shooting in the air. They also molested people, asked some young men to remove clothes and lie on the wet ground.
“They flogged them with canes and the back of machetes,” Adolphus added.
Force for force
The raid came in response to an order from President Olusegun Obasanjo to use “force for force” in the vast wetlands region of southern Nigeria, especially in the eastern delta around Port Harcourt where the latest abductions have occurred.
The kidnappings follow a series of attacks on the oil industry in February which forced Royal Dutch Shell to evacuate hundreds of workers from oilfields in the western delta, reducing the Opec member nation’s output by a quarter.
Some abductions are motivated purely by ransom, while others are by communities trying to extract money or other benefits from oil companies operating in their area.
Several recent kidnappings and attacks have taken on a more political tone, with demands reflecting a growing ethnic nationalism of the Ijaw tribe, native to the Niger Delta.
In the case of Schiffarth, the kidnappers demanded the release of two jailed Ijaw leaders and more benefits for the community where the German company operates.
It was not clear what led to his release.
Militancy is fuelled by the fact that the region which produces 90 percent of the government’s wealth is poverty-stricken, polluted and politically marginalised.
Previous military assaults in the delta have brought accusations of human rights violations and inflamed tensions further.
Oil executives fear that heavy-handed reprisals against the militants could cause a bloodbath and trigger further crippling attacks on oilfields located deep in the mangrove-lined creeks.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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