Until yesterday evening, the Nigerian kidnappers of Maltese national Gorg Scerri had made no contact with authorities, this newspaper has learnt.
Scerri, 62, an oilrig employee, was abducted by a group of men armed with automatic weapons in Nigeria’s River State last Friday.
In comments to MaltaToday, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said: “So far, to our knowledge, the kidnappers have made no contact with the authorities. We are dealing with the situation through the Nigerian embassy in Tripoli, but we have now extended our work through diplomacy in Italy and England.”
Rings of organised crime in the oil rich Delta region of Nigeria have been accused of cutting the country’s oil production by 25% in recent months, reportedly due to the drastic rise in violent attacks on the Nigerian oil industry, in a bid to let locals gain financial retribution from neighbouring oil finds within southern Nigeria.
The toll of kidnapped foreign oil workers in the Delta region has soared to over 200 within the past year, hence such occurrences do not often make the headlines in the Nigerian media.
Asked whether the Maltese government was considering the use of ‘soft diplomacy’ to resolve the case, whereby independent investigators would use their personal contacts in the area to track down the kidnappers faster, Borg said: “It’s too early to tell, and the more we say about the case the worse it is for the situation.”
In 2001, Chief Humphrey Idisi, the owner of Texas-based company Lonestar Drilling with whom Scerri is employed, had been accused of imprisoning the Ukranian crew of a cargo vessel, from which oil rigs and drilling equipment were lost during a storm off the Cape of Good Hope. It was alleged the crew were held prisoner and harshly treated over a period of 18 months while Idisi attempted to claim £12m in compensation from her owners. The case was defended by lawyer Cherie Blair.

ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt