TO,
Never did think you were aiming shots at me and all that you say is very true. Reuters quoted as their source an un-named diplomat from one of the countries whose nationals were kidnapped.
We all just try to keep our spirits up with the thought that so far nobody who has been kidnapped has been hurt. We must bear in mind the poor families of the local security guards who have no welfare state to take care of them and I hope that the residents of the estate will have a collection to help their dependants. It's all too easy for expatriates here in Nigeria to get so tied up in their own security problems that they forget that a lot of people are being killed here every day.
What you say is quite correct - until something has happened for the first time, it's easy to be misled into believing that it never will. One just has to hope they don't want to kill off the goose that is laying the golden egg. Here's a perspective from a PENGASSAN official:
"These kidnappers can't be doing it on their own, without support from a powerful cabal that cuts across state and local governments and even the armed forces," Lumumba Okugbawa, acting secretary general of PENGASSAN, told Reuters by telephone.
"It's a lucrative business, these ransoms. (Government officials) establish contact with the kidnappers, they negotiate with them, yet no one is ever caught. The kidnappers always get off scot-free," he said.
I hope that all concerned will soon be freed, but spare a thought for the families of those unfortunate security guards who were killed just because they were there, and the poor man who was shot in the stomach.
Tom