Shell: Hostage-Takers Are Demanding Jobs

[dArKeR]

Gunmen who seized two German and four Nigerian oil workers are demanding petroleum giant Royal Dutch/Shell honor promises of jobs and benefits in the oil-rich south, a company spokesman said Thursday.

The kidnappers are dissatisfied with Shell's implementation of an agreement to provide nine communities bordering oil fields with jobs and basic social benefits, Simon Buerke, a spokesman for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos., said by telephone from London.

The Iduwuni National Union for Peace and Development group claimed responsibility for the Wednesday kidnapping of the six employees of a German contractor for Shell.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050616/ap_on_bi_ge/nigeria_oil_hostages

[tk2kewl]

1. They should demand public ownership too

[kenny blankenship]

2. Why not? they have people skills!

[Brooklyn Michael]

3. Holding innocents hostage?

....Why does this remind me of Enron? Sounds like these guys would be naturals when it comes to being an energy company executive...

[WatchWhatISay]

4. My husband works at Shell and has been asked if he would

like to go to Nigeria. They do not keep it secret how dangerous that might be. He is a contract draftsman, and would go there to teach Nigerians drafting skills so that they could hold those jobs.

So it sounds like Shell is trying to honor its promise, but when even "Nigerian oil workers" are being seized, what about Shell's responsibility to keep its employees/contractors, who would do the training, safe?