A Chinese rescue group arrived in Port Harcourt, the capital of
Nigeria's south state of Rivers, Saturday afternoon to seek release
of five Chinese workers who were kidnapped Friday morning.
The group, which arrived in the airport at about 4:30 PM (1530
GMT) "aims to coordinate with the Nigerian government and police on
earlier release of the five Chinese workers from a Chinese
telecommunication company," said Wang Lei, head of the rescue
group, to Xinhua on phone.
The group is made up of staff from Chinese embassy and the
telecommunication company.
Wang, who is also councelor of political affairs of the
Chinese embassy in Nigeria, said the Nigerian government and police
had promised to do their best to rescue the hostages.
He quoted Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, permanent secretary of the Nigerian
Foreign Ministry, as saying that "the Nigerian government feels
very sorry over the kidnapping of Chinese workers in the Niger
Delta."
Ahmed also said that the Nigerian government would use all kinds
of sources and make all efforts to establish contacts with the
kidnappers to rescue the Chinese workers and would also report
developments of rescue action.
The permanent secretary also conveyed Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo's great concern on the incident, saying that
Obasanjo had directed the security department and related agencies
to conduct the rescue action right now.
The Nigerian police started searching for the five people Friday
afternoon. So far no group or individual has claimed responsibility
for the kidnapping and nobody knows the hideout of the
kidnappers.
The police have now started a bigger-scale searching action,
said Ireju Barasua, public relations officer of the Rivers State
Police Command.
(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2007)