By Victor Ahiuma-Young
THE insecurity of oil  workers in the Niger Delta region  heightened Sunday night as no fewer than eight workers of Exxonmobil   were kidnapped in Oso Gas and Condensate Complex, Akwa Ibom.

Already, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has called on government to ensure the immediate and safe release of the kidnapped workers, some of whom are PENGASSAN members.

Vanguard gathered that an unspecified number of kidnappers stormed the platform in six speed boats and  attacked it shooting sporadically with various weapons for about ten minutes.

According to sources, security at the platform initially responded for a few minutes, but later stopped to prevent the whole complex being consumed by fire and did what is known as ESD, Emergency Shut Down, as a precautionary measure.

At the time of this report, no communication had been established with either the kidnappers or the victims and there were fears that the victims might have been taken to Cameroon because the platform is close to a border town.

Reacting to the said development, President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, called on government to immediately effect the safe release of the kidnapped workers.

According to him: “The kidnappers stormed the platform around 10pm last night with six speed boats armed with various weapons of mass destruction and shooting sporadically to the air. It only took the bravery and ingenuity of the staff to shut down the platform that has installed capacity of 80kb condensate and 60kb NGL.

As at this monent we have not been able to establish contact with the abductors.  At the time of this attack 74 people were on board while eight were kidnapped.  PENGASSAN called on government to ensure they are found and release immediately.