Six Indians abducted over pay row in central Nigeria
Six Indians working for a steel firm in central Nigeria's Kogi state have been abducted by protesting workers demanding pay increases.
By Agencies |
LAGOS: Six Indians working for a steel firm in central Nigeria's Kogi state have been abducted by protesting workers demanding pay increases, state media reported on Wednesday.
The whereabouts of the Indians who were seized at Ajaokuta Steel Company on Tuesday, were still unknown, according to media reports.
The report said the workers also barricaded the main entrance to the firm in an attempt to force the management to honour a 15-percent payrise agreed on October 2.
The abduction comes just ahead of a planned visit to Nigeria by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will be in Abuja Sunday ahead of a summit meeting in Johannesburg.
The labour-related abduction is the first of its kind in a few months. Kidnapping for ransom continues unabated in oil-rich southern Nigeria. Most recently gunmen have been targetting the elderly relatives and small children of prominent Nigerians.
On Tuesday in the oil-rich southern state of Bayelsa, gunmen kidnapped the 82 year-old father of a state lawmaker.
In the eighteen months to June 2007, militant and criminal gangs in the region concentrated on kidnapping foreigners, mostly oil workers, seizing some 200 of them in that period.
The whereabouts of the Indians who were seized at Ajaokuta Steel Company on Tuesday, were still unknown, according to media reports.
The report said the workers also barricaded the main entrance to the firm in an attempt to force the management to honour a 15-percent payrise agreed on October 2.
The abduction comes just ahead of a planned visit to Nigeria by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will be in Abuja Sunday ahead of a summit meeting in Johannesburg.
The labour-related abduction is the first of its kind in a few months. Kidnapping for ransom continues unabated in oil-rich southern Nigeria. Most recently gunmen have been targetting the elderly relatives and small children of prominent Nigerians.
On Tuesday in the oil-rich southern state of Bayelsa, gunmen kidnapped the 82 year-old father of a state lawmaker.
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In the eighteen months to June 2007, militant and criminal gangs in the region concentrated on kidnapping foreigners, mostly oil workers, seizing some 200 of them in that period.
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