Washington Post Report on "Ransoms Fuel Surge in Nigeria Kidnapping"

The Washington Post Thursday report on "Ransoms Fuel Surge in Nigeria Kidnapping" has raised the critical questions we must ask on the escalation of kidnappings of foreign oil workers and members of their families in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The genesis of the Niger Delta crisis has been addressed in "Niger Delta Kidnappers Plc", that was published on the Nigerian Times International Forum in January, 2007 and also published on Conflict in the Niger Delta.

The notorious ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria and well known retired military officers, active naval officers, army officers, state governors and their accomplices are all implicated in the illegal oil bunkering and kidnappings of foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta. The former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odilli and governor of Delta State, Mr. James Ibori employed the gunmen and so called militants operating in the Niger Delta since 1999 to 2007.The two ex-governors should be arrested and tried for their crimes. And the two key witnesses of the crimes of these governors are the two leaders of the Niger Delta militants, Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) and Ateke Tom, the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV).

The intense confrontation between the NDPVF and NDV seems to have been
brought about by Asari’s political falling out with the NDPVF’s financial
supporter Peter Odili, governor of Rivers State following the April 2003 local
and state elections. After Asari publicly criticized the election process as
fraudulent, the Odili government withdrew its financial support from the NDPVF
and began to support Tom’s NDV, effectively launching a paramilitary campaign
against the NDPVF.

Wikipedia

The US government and European Union must address the engagement of the ruling party in Nigeria in acts of terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea. Because, the Niger Delta kidnappers are sea pirates and ruthless terrorists using illegal oil bunkering to purchase arms as the terrorists in Afghanistan use their illegal trade in opium and heroin to perpetrate acts of terrorism in the Middle East.