Militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region continue to hold three foreign oil workers reportedly kidnapped over the weekend in the southern city of Port Harcourt. The three include two Croatians and the other from Montenegro.
Felix Ogbaudu is Rivers State police commissioner. He said the employers of the kidnapped workers have yet to officially inform the police about the kidnapping.
“Well, as I’m talking to you, I haven’t got any formal report from the employers of these Croatians. But I do know from some other sources that they were kidnapped yesterday from where they went to drink,” He said.
Ogbaudu said it is an accepted practice worldwide that the local police should be informed any time there is a crime committed. But he said he did not know why the employers of the latest hostages did not immediately inform the police.
“I expect that as commissioner of police that when things happen, I should be informed so that when people call me I can at least tell them something, even if I don’t have all the details,” Ogbaudu said.
He rejected any suggestion that the employers of the latest hostages did not inform the local police perhaps because they did not have confidence in the police.
“It has nothing to do with confidence. You cannot say somebody cannot perform and so when a crime is committed you won’t inform the police. Like I told you, it is the practice all over,” Ogbaudu said.
He said Rivers State police are doing everything possible to find and rescue the hostages. But Ogbaudu said it is not the sole responsibility of the police to find the hostages.
“I tell you very frankly it’s not something that the police can address exclusively. It’s a collective responsibility. Members of the public, the police, ordinary Nigerians, that’s what I’m talking about,” Ogbaudu said.
