{"id":26312,"date":"2016-06-24T01:47:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T01:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nigeria-kidnapping-village-peppered-with-bullets\/"},"modified":"2016-06-24T01:47:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T01:47:53","slug":"nigeria-kidnapping-village-peppered-with-bullets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nigeria-kidnapping-village-peppered-with-bullets\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria kidnapping: Village peppered with bullets during abduction of Aussie miners"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Witnesses in Nigeria say bullets reached a nearby village as seven mine workers \u2014 including three Australians \u2014 were kidnapped after their driver was shot dead.}<\/p>\n

The workers, employed by Perth-based engineering company Macmahon, were attacked by about 30 militants near Calabar, around 600 kilometres south of the capital Abuja.<\/p>\n

The four-car convoy was set upon early Wednesday morning, and an eyewitness reported seeing the victims bundled into a boat.<\/p>\n

Locals told the ABC when they heard gunshots, they feared the worst.<\/p>\n

“When we heard a loud gunshot, we were thinking as if Boko Haram has approached our area but we come to know that it was militants that came,” one unnamed witness said.<\/p>\n

“So they shot and they shot, enough gunshots. We ran into the bush.”<\/p>\n

Nigerian man Itoro Okon said there was panic when the gunshots started.<\/p>\n

“Everybody ran,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The bullet reached to inside the village. People ran.”<\/p>\n

Macmahon has a seven-year contract for quarrying operations in the region.<\/p>\n

The Niger Delta is a rich oil-producing region and there are a number of criminal networks that operate in the area.<\/p>\n

It is not uncommon for foreign workers to be taken and later released after a ransom payment.<\/p>\n

Unofficially, some European countries will pay ransoms, but it is the policy of Australia and New Zealand not to pay to secure the release of citizens.<\/p>\n

State Commissioner for Police Jimo Ozi-Obeh said everything was being done to recover the men who had been taken.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to secure the place and not only that place, secure Cross River state as a whole,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’ll agree with me that up till yesterday, the town had been very, very peaceful.<\/p>\n

“We have started reviewing our strategy, what went wrong and what steps we are going to take to ensure that this does not repeat itself again.”<\/p>\n

{{Macmahon ‘providing support to families’}}<\/p>\n

Macmahon has suspended trading and issued a short statement confirming the death of one of their employees.<\/p>\n

“The employees who were abducted in the incident include three Australians, two Nigerians, a New Zealander and a South African,” a statement released by the company said.<\/p>\n

“We are working to ensure the safe return of all the men involved and are in communication with their families.<\/p>\n

“Macmahon is providing support to the men’s families and we ask the media to respect their privacy at this time.<\/p>\n

“Counselling has also been made available for all Macmahon employees and their families.”<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said yesterday the Australian Government was working hard with Nigerian authorities to secure the Australians’ release.<\/p>\n

In cases like this one, the kidnappers can wait for days or even weeks before making contact with any demands.<\/p>\n

\"Macmahon<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Witnesses in Nigeria say bullets reached a nearby village as seven mine workers \u2014 including three Australians \u2014 were kidnapped after their driver was shot dead.} The workers, employed by Perth-based engineering company Macmahon, were attacked by about 30 militants near Calabar, around 600 kilometres south of the capital Abuja. The four-car convoy was set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2516],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-abc-news"],"bylines":[{"id":2516,"name":"ABC News","slug":"abc-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2516,"name":"ABC News","slug":"abc-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26312"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26312"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}