On the 5th of May 2014, Executive Director and Founder of the Hope for Niger Delta Campaign (HNDC) and Environmental Activist, Comrade Sunny Ofehe and four other Dutch nationals, Erhard Leffers, Jandries Groenendijk, Miss Marianne Vos and Femi Soewu were kidnapped in the creeks of the Niger Delta, Bayelsa state to be precise when they visited the Idodo River community to do a documentary film on a hospital project in the community. One person was shot dead during the kidnap operation.
Though Ofehe who is based in the Netherlands was released 24 hours after the kidnap his Dutch friends were not that lucky as they spent six days in the creeks. Saturday Vanguard observed that their abduction almost pitched the activist against the Dutch Government following the insinuation that he could have hand in the kidnap. That was the insinuation of a segment of the Dutch media when the incident happened and it became a big problem for the family of the activist in Rotterdam.
However, this Reporter was in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for the 2014 IBC conference from the 11-15 September 2014 where he met with Ofehe and he narrated his ordeal. He also disclosed reasons he is yet to conduct the burial rites of his mother. Continue...
Excerpts:
Can you tell us what happened when you were kidnapped in Nigeria with your colleagues?
We were actually in Nigeria on the invitation of the Idodo River community. They have an association. What happened was that the association went into a Global Memorandum of Understanding with Chevron, Shell and the oil multinational companies. In that GMOU programme, Chevron was able to come out with the funding of a hospital. A 30 bird hospital for the people of the community.
Ironically, the chairman of this association, Berry Negerese, visited the Netherlands, we met and we had a discussion. Coincidentally, the same community happened to be the community where I visited during the militancy days in the Niger Delta. I led a team of United States journalists and Dutch freelance documentary film maker and we visited MEND camp around 2008.
During our visit we observed the suffering of this community, a community that has two of the biggest deep sea off shore drill-age platform, the Bonga oil field and the EA Oil field, does not have any electricity, no clean water, no school or hospital. Most of the people we spoke to in 2008 appealed to us to tell the world their problem. And when I got back to Netherlands I made a short documentary film which can be found on our website.
So this time around, when I heard that they have a hospital, I was excited so I decided that it was time for me to visit the community to see the hospital project. I wanted to cover the hospital and solicit for support for the hospital from Europe with a view to assisting the people of Idodo River. We were five who actually left here, one was from African web TV, two of the Dutch people, one male and one female were actually working with me for the Inside Niger Delta Magazine. We were received by the community members very well but unfortunately for us, on our way coming back we were kidnapped.
Sporadic gunshot
At about 5pm, we got to a community called Letugbene, they were having their market day. We stopped by because we wanted to buy what we always call kpokpo garri to eat the dry fish which the community gave to us. We were with two speed boats, two speed boats came firing sporadically and before we knew it they hit our speed boat. They fired the engine of our speed boat, took the white people first. Another speed boat came and that one took me and other guy away.
We were blind folded, brought to a place where we could only hear sound. It was a torturous experience because at the end of the day we were kept in a detached hut in the middle of nowhere. We were told that if we made any attempt to escape we would be killed. The youths told us that they were doing that because the multinational oil companies operating in their communities were not helping them and that was why they were kidnapping people. But I told them that we were not oil workers.
They thought that the foreigners with me were Chevron workers. They did not know that Chevron was only involved because they were actually the ones funding the hospital through the GMOU. I told them that the issue of ransom should be ruled out as we were just ordinary people who came from Holland to assist the people of the community. We were actually sweating, there was much of dehydration process. We were given pure water. It was a very terrible experience for my colleagues. They were fed with Indomie in the morning and the whole of the six days of captivity. So it was really a terrible experience.
Our freedom
These guys were busy sniffing cocaine. They had sophisticated weapons and you know cocaine is not cheap to come by and the way they were packaged you would know they were sponsored. And they knew that we were entering the Idodo River community. They were prepared. I was particularly concerned about my Dutch colleagues who I knew were going through terrible situation. They were sporadic firing when we were kidnapped and we were scared.
I was happy that the foreigners were not hurt but we lost somebody. The guy who drove the second speed boat which we used died after the propeller from the speed boat slashed him following the gun shot from the kidnappers. It was a nightmare. We didn’t know how long they would keep us. For me, as a Niger Delta activist who had always preached abroad that there was peace in the Niger Delta, it was embarrassing. I always brought foreigners to the area.
One Dutch man and I were released 24 hours after the kidnap. That was the beginning of my problem because their media kept asking why did they keep others and released me? And some newspapers alleged that I had hand in the kidnap. But my conscience was clear because I have never been involved in such act. The people kidnapped were all close to me. Another good thing was that no ransom was paid by anybody.
My wife was under pressure in the Netherlands because journalists were all over her trying to get information. That was the first time she would be thrown into the center of the media in a situation where she was also traumatized. After I was released they warned me not to step in the Niger Delta again, that they would kill me if I did. I was happy that on the 6th day they were released and we had to leave Nigeria immediately.
Kidnapping stalling investment in Niger Delta
It is a very discouraging situation. It is completely unreasonable for anyone to target foreign visitors who come to the Niger Delta. We must understand that we already had negative image since the militancy era. If you go to the website of the Western Embassies they will tell you to stay out of the Niger Delta and that is what we have to deal with, even when investors want to invest in the area.
We must not forget that there are so many business opportunities in the Niger Delta that are begging for international collaboration in the area of management and technical responsibility. So if we cannot try as much as possible to remould our image in a way that we will prove to the international community that the place is safe, we will continue to miss out on international business corporation. The economy of the place will continue to suffer it.
Lets take, for instance, the local content law which gives power to indigenous companies to participate in oil and gas businesses. With local contents they usually don’t have the technical capacities to engage the multinational companies in the oil and gas sector. And what that means is that you will need an international technical partner to come and partner with you. They need partnership that will open up job opportunities for the local people. But insecurity is not helping matters.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/day-kidnapped-4-dutch-nationals-ofehe/#sthash.hUKcQL6x.dpuf
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