(AFP) – Gunmen have kidnapped an Indian woman who works for a school sponsored by ExxonMobil in Nigeria, while also killing her driver and a police officer who was with her, authorities said Thursday.
“The person who was kidnapped was … a female Indian national,” said police spokesman in Akwa Ibom state Onyeka Orji. “The driver was shot dead and the policeman who was with her was equally killed.”
The incident occurred on Wednesday in Eket, a city in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. It was unclear whether a ransom had been demanded.
Orji said the woman was the head teacher at the oil firm’s Pegasus primary school in Eket.
Scores of kidnappings have occurred in the Niger Delta in recent years, often by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments, but also by militants demanding a fairer distribution of oil revenue.
Last month, gunmen hijacked a school bus and kidnapped a group of some 15 students. They were freed in a police and military operation five days later.