Gov Leads Team to Free 11 Hostages
From John Iwori in Yenagoa, Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Juliana Taiwo in Abuja
Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, yesterday risked the high waves of the high sea when he led the team which negotiated the release of 11 expatriate oil workers of an oil service company, Pride Forasol, held hostage by angry contract workers.
Alamieyeseigha who was on a trip to the United Kingdom on the entourage of Vice President Atiku Abubakar had to cut short his journey to spearhead efforts to release the expatriates held hostage at Sangana in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State over the poor condition of service of staff doing contract on an oil field owned by a Conoil Producing Limited.
The released expatriate workers are made up of eight French, one Croatian, one American and one Nigerien.
The freed hostages included Messrs Laurent Banteigny, Jean Mestephe, Frederic Champagnae and Jean Francois Galard.
Others are Michael Baeza, Jean Bonifassi, Yannick Monty, Joe Charles and Davor Milic. An aircraft conveying two other released staff from Sangana community, off the Atlantic Ocean was yet to land at the Creek Haven, Government House, Yenagoa helipad as at press time.
THISDAY gathered that the Bayelsa Governor hurriedly returned to the country at 4.30 am yesterday morning after he was contacted on the hostage situation by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
On arrival at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Alamieyeseigha boarded a chartered plane early that morning to Port Harcourt from where an helicopter conveyed him to Brass.
It was gathered that in Brass, the governor was warned against taking the risk to land at the platform where the hostage takers were operating.
The helicopter conveying him was then redirected to another platform from where a line of communication was opened to the angry workers.
A source said the workers told Alamieyeseigha that their action had nothing to do with the usual Niger-Delta agitation and that they were only seeking the payment of their severance package since the oil field contract in which they were engaged would terminate in September.
They accused the oil service company, Pride Faraso of planning to use and dump them.
After the governor listened to them and promised to press their case with the oil service company and its client, Conoil Producing, he also requested that he would like to hold further negotiation with the irate workers on their platform.
He was then assured of his safety. Then the governor's helicopter moved over to the platform where the negotiation was concluded. The kidnapped expatriates were later released to the governor.
Parading the released expatriate workers to newsmen at Government House, Yenagoa, Alamieyeseigha expressed delight that the oil staff who were held incommunicado for over 24 hours have finally regained their freedom. He also decried the poor condition of blacks working in the company as appalling.
According to him, the Nigerian workers who were on the verge of completing their contract job have no definite severance package or any other benefit.
While also commenting on the plight of the oil service company workers the deputy governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who said he was lifted into a crane to physically meet with the embattled foreign workers at the platform of the oil service firm, stated that the Nigerian workers down tools to press home their demands.
"They have been working for the oil service firms for 2 years. No letter of employment. No staff identity card. Their terminal benefits were unnecessarily delayed.
"That is why they down tools. They barricaded the helipad to prevent any aircraft from landing or taking off. That is why Mr. President and the embassies of the various nationals involved were worried", Jonathan added.
The rescued foreign workers who looked unkempt were however full of praise for the state government's effort in securing their release, just as they were driven to Creek Motel, Yenagoa for their lodging.
The rescue team put together by the state government was made up of top government functionaries from the area.
THISDAY checks revealed that the state government took the option of using prominent indigenes of Sangana area to secure the release of the workers without any confrontation between the aggrieved workers and security operatives which may lead to loss of lives.
Yesterday, the Federal Government formally reacted to report of the kidnap as Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy, Dr. Edmund Daukoru in a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Public Relations, Mr. Emman Agbegir, said though there was dispute, which arose over a contractual agreement to supply 30 unskilled labour between a drilling contractor Pride-Farasol and its supplier Octopus, it did not lead to any hostage taking.
The statement further explained that the agreement for the supply of this casual labour was due to lapse in September this year and that negotiations to this effect had begun between both parties with a view to either having it renewed or terminating it with appropriate terminal benefits to the workers.
"Our current information is that the negotiations are still on-going, and though operations had been suspended, there was definitely no kidnap incident and no hostile involvement of the community. It is therefore not true that six foreign oil workers were kidnapped in Bayelsa by suspected Ijaw youths", the adviser said.
The statement however admitted that expatriates on the rig (eight French, one Croatian and one Nigerian) have been whisked to the NNPC/AGIP's Brass terminal pre-emptively for safety while negotiations were going on.
The adviser assured the general public and those directly concerned that the negotiations between Conoil, Pride Farasol and their contract labour have not deteriorated to a point of alarm.
"We wish to assure all stakeholders, that the Federal Government will do everything possible to maintain peace and security in the Niger-Delta region and appealed to all in the area to continue to resolve their differences with oil companies through dialogue", he said.
Also, at the stakeholders meeting meant to find lasting solutions to the lingering dispute between members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Minister of Labour, Dr. Hassan Lawal expressed disappointment with the management of both Conoil and Bebcork Nigeria Limited over their attitude in handling the dispute involving the contact workers in the Bayelsa field.
He said he was personally going to call Conoil Chiarman, Dr. Mike Adenuga, to remind him that the empire he has in Nigeria was not built in a day, adding that being indifferent to the complaints of workers would equally be detrimental to his business empire. "It does not cost anything to be at these meetings and at the end of the day you will be better for it", he said.
Lawal said that the primary responsibility of his Ministry was to promote and ensure peaceful and conducive industrial relations atmosphere in the country and as social partners in the oil and gas sector, the responsibility to achieve the desired atmosphere was a collective assignment.
Earlier in his remark, President of PENGASSAN, Brown Ogbeifun, had while expressing regret at the at the plight of the hostages in Sangana in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, said both Conoil and Bebcork had never seen them as partners in progress.
"We want to congratulate the Ministry for being able to drag both Conoil and Bebcork to this meeting today. They are both giants that are above the law in this country, many of our letters written to employers in this industry have either been returned to us un-opened or we don't get any reply from them at all. There is nothing we have not done to ensure Nigerians are treated fairly at their places of work according to the ILO convention. We hope those present here today have the mandate to carry out whatever decisions would be reached here today", he said.
Meanwhile, contrary to reports available to THISDAY yesterday, the 11 kidnapped expatriates are not members of Conoil Producing.
Reports indicated that the freed hostages were staff of Pride Forasol Drilling Company based in Port Harcourt, with operating headquarters in Paris France and international offices in Houston Texas, USA.
It was also gathered that no Conoil staff was involved in the crisis.
Disagreements between the management of the oil companies and the people of the host communities over the implementation of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) had often led to abduction of oil workers in the past.
Monday incident was the latest in the act of kidnapping of oil workers by militant youths in the oil-producing Niger Delta region to press demand for cash, jobs and contracts.
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