Nigerian Total employee kidnapped in Niger Delta

By JON GAMBRELL

LAGOS, Nigeria
Gunmen kidnapped a Nigerian working for French oil giant Total after he left his home early Wednesday morning in the country's oil-rich delta long beset by violence, a police spokeswoman said.

The man's kidnapping comes after a threat by the region's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, to target the French firm. However, MEND denied taking part in the kidnapping. Police spokeswoman Rita Abbey told The Associated Press police did not immediately know who was responsible.

Militants in the delta have targeted oil workers for kidnapping in the past during their campaign to bring more oil money to a region that suffered environmental damage and economic neglect over 50 years of production. However, criminal gangs increasingly target wealthy Nigerians and politicians for kidnappings.

Abbey said the man was kidnapped as he drove his car outside the city of Port Harcourt around 6:30 a.m. She said investigators continued to look for clues in the attack.

"We have not had any contact from the kidnappers," Abbey said.

Militant groups in the Niger Delta have attacked pipelines, kidnapped petroleum company employees and fought government troops since January 2006. The attacks have increased global oil prices greatly in the past and could in the future, as Nigeria exported more than 1 million barrels of crude a day to America in December alone.

President Umaru Yar'Adua negotiated a cease-fire with militants with a promise of more government oil money coming to the region. The government also began offering cash payoffs to former fighters to keep them from carrying out new attacks in the maze of creeks and oil fields running through the delta.

That amnesty deal faltered after Yar'Adua became ill and hasn't been seen publicly since November. MEND detonated two car bombs March 15 during a newspaper-sponsored discussion about the amnesty program, marking what appears to be the effort's collapse. In a statement preceding the bombings, MEND warned it would attack installations and oil companies across the Niger Delta, including those of Total, who largely have avoided losses that have plagued oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

However, in a statement released Wednesday, a MEND spokesman said it was not responsible for the kidnapping.

"MEND does not see the Nigerian workers in Total as having any hostage value and will spare them for kidnapping," the spokesman said.