Dayo Johnson
6 April 2008
FIVE workers of Express /Shebah Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, kidnapped by militant youths in Ilaje oil rich communities areas of Ondo State, have been released to the state government.
Meanwhile, the state government has read riot act to the militants in the oil rich area of the state.
Handing over the five oil workers to Governor Olusegun Agagu in Akure, the chairman of Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission, OSOPADEC, Chief Adewale Omojuwa, said no ransom was paid to the aggrieved youths.
The released workers are Captain Tajudeen Adebanjo, Leke Omojebaje, Tina Adeniji, Martins Ebiyeon and Mike Obas.
The police in the state claimed ignorance of the kidnapping until the victims were released.
The militant youths numbering about hundred had stormed the Awoye Platform of Express /Sheba Petroleum and Gas Company on March 27 at about 9 a.m. and took away the five workers in protest of non-payment of royalties due to twenty-one communities where it operates.
Leader of the militants who spoke with newsmen in Akure on phone, Mr. Alaiku Akinkanjuomo, on the day of the abduction, said the workers of the oil company were abducted "over unpaid claims to the communities that host the oil wells on which they operate."
Immediately the incident occurred, the chairman of OSOPADEC informed the governor who asked him to intervene and secure the release of the workers.
They were released to the Chairman of OSOPADEC who met with the aggrieved youths together with some Naval officers in Igbokoda and other security operatives in the state.
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