PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the nation’s security agencies to take all necessary action to locate and rescue the foreign construction workers who were abducted from their camp by terrorists yesterday in Bauchi State.
According to a State House release signed by presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati on Monday, President Jonathan commiserated with the family of the guard who was reportedly killed in the attack which occurred in the town of Jamaáre, in Bauchi State.
The president assured the relatives of the kidnapped foreign workers as well as the governments of their countries that the government will do everything possible to find their abductors and ensure the safe release of all those they abducted.
The statement also said that the government condemned the kidnapping of the workers, reaffirming the Nigerian government’s commitment to stamping out all forms of terrorism and criminal abduction in the country.
Mr. Jonathan urged all Nigerians and foreigners in the country to continue to go about their normal business in the full assurance that the government and national security agencies are working tirelessly to curb threats to security in all parts of the country.
Unknown gunmen had attacked a camp belonging to a construction company, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon, according to local authorities.
The raid, which resulted in the biggest kidnapping yet in a region under attack by Islamist extremists, happened on Saturday night in Jama’re, a town in a rural part of Bauchi state.
Gunmen first attacked a prison, burning two police trucks, said the Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Muhammed. They then targeted a worker’s camp for the construction company Setraco, which is in the area building a road, Muhammed said. The gunmen shot dead a guard before kidnapping the foreign workers, he added.
Adamu Aliyu, the chairman of the local government, identified those kidnapped as one British citizen, one Greek, one Italian and four Lebanese. Britain’s Foreign Office said it was looking into reports that a UK national had been kidnapped.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the abductions.