NEO,
That's good news - at least Bristow is doing the right thing. I also heard that CHC was moving all its Filipino staff from Nigeria for their safety and peace of mind. Maybe at last the companies are starting to deal with the very real concerns of their employees in Nigeria.
Intersetingly, MEND have denied that the CNN report had anything to do with them, claiming instead that reporter Jeff Koinange had misled the public with his report and threatening to disclose the entire e-mail communication between MEND and CNN if Koinange should dispute what they say:
What CNN has presented as the truth to its unsuspecting viewers, is a collection of thugs, pirates and bunkerers put together by Jeff Koinange and CNN to meet up with the deadline given to Mr. Koinange by his editors in CNN. It is far from the truth.
"The band of criminals paraded by CNN as MEND have nothing to do with MEND. They are indeed the kidnappers of the Filipinos and as earlier stated, carried out this act at the behest of politicians and some misguided so-called Ijaw leaders to prevent an Itsekiri man emerging as governor in Delta State.
"It is astonishing that a network of high repute such as CNN would descend this low in its search for a sensational story. We are reluctant to release our correspondence with Mr. Koinange but will circulate this if our claims are refuted."
In an earlier release, Gbomo had stated: "From the inception of our campaign, all statements from MEND have been released through this email account only and we categorically denied taking the Filipinos."
Apparently refering to another group which claimed to have kidnapped the Filipinos, Gbomo said the so called Major General Tamuno "is unknown to us and is a fraud."
The Filipinoes, he said, "were abducted by a community in Gbaramatu with the connivance of FNDIC in Warri who were paid by local politicians to blackmail the government into annulling the PDP primaries in Delta State.”
Gbomo said the FNDIC in a bid to "lend credence to their fraud and cover up this disgraceful act carried out in the name of the struggle for the liberation of the Niger Delta, they added our original list of demands to their intended goals."
The struggle for the liberation of the Niger Delta, he said in the release, "has no relationship with the PDP primaries for which the Filipinos are being held. This same group of frauds in their earlier release claimed to hold the Italian hostages as well. This has long been disproved".
If true, this may well be good news as MEND have pretty much abided by their promises and actually do seem more interested in politics than kidnapping for financial gain. The CNN news report caused a lot of people here in Port Harcourt a lot of stress and Filipino expats here have been very worried by it, especially as it seems that they are being targeted at present. Bristow and CHC are doing the right thing in relocating or removing them. There have been reports that many Filipinos have been catching flights from Port Harcourt today. It's sad that these gentle and hard-working people have been made unwitting victims in the Delta problems. Without them, both the offshore and onshore oil sectors and the aviation companies in Nigeria will be badly affected.
The President, and the military, despite not appearing to take any positive action are at least talking with communities in the Niger delta and with Pengassan in an attempt to calm the situation. Sadly, with elections due soon, it may be a case of too little, too late. In Nigeria, there's always a lot going on behind the scenes which is unreported, so there's still hope of an improvement in the situation before the international reputation of Nigeria is further tarnished.