[allAfrica.com] As Kidnappers Release Mrs. Idisi Again, Militants Blow Up Shell Flow Station This Day (Lagos) NEWS 4 May 2008 Posted to the web 4 May 2008 By Ahamefula Ogbu and Segun James in Yenagoa Port Harcourt The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Diebu Creek Flow Station was on Friday night blown up by militants operating along the creeks of Southern Ijaw Local Government area of Bayelsa State, causing a massive oil spillage along the waterways. The attack on the heavily guarded facility was said to have caught the soldiers deployed to protect it unawares as they were easily overrun by the militants who were said to have come in five speed boats. Meanwhile, Mrs. Margaret Idisi, wife of the Chief Executive Officer of Lone Star Drilling Company Limited, Chief Humphrey Idisi, who was kidnapped from her husband's home in Port Harcourt on April 13, yesterday regained her freedom from her abductors. The attack on Shell facility, which resulted into a spill of crude into the river and surrounding creek, led to the shutting in of some undisclosed quantity of crude oil some of which had spilled before the shut in. The attack came as some suspected sea pirates attacked a ship and abducted the Captain suspected to be a foreign national and a Nigerian engineer 15 miles off the coast of Bonny, Rivers State. Information was scanty on the attack at press time last night, but Spokesman of the Joint Task Force, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa has confirmed the incident. Spokesman of Shell, Mr. Precious Okolobo, said the company has already moved containment booms to check the spill but would not say the quantity of oil so far spilled and the one shut in. "SPDC's Diebu creek flow station was attacked last night (Friday night). A few oil delivery lines are affected and some oil has been spilled into the environment. We are mobilising containment booms to stop the spread of oil and have also shut in some production volumes", he said. According to a source, the spread is aided by the heavy rains in the past few days in the area. As at the time of this report, a contingent of new troops to protect Shell workers who are to do the clean up of the oil spillage has been deployed to the area even though it could not be confirmed if the exercise has begun at press time. The attack on the 30,000 barrels per day installation is the first attack on any oil facility since former Governor Timipre Sylva brokered a peace deal with militant groups operating in the state last year. Claiming responsibility for the attack is a Commander Douglas; a hitherto unknown militant who promised that the war had just began. He did not give any reason for the onslaught, which affected Shell's wells 12, 13, 15 and 16t. The attack also damaged the manifold supplying crude to the flow station and the equipment, which separates water from crude and the delivery lines to the oil terminal. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has been claiming responsibilities for several attacks on Shell facilities. The Rivers State Commi-ssioner of Police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, who confirmed the release of Mrs. Idisi, said she gained her freedom in the early hours of Saturday in Bayelsa State. "We do not know if any ransom was paid before her release, and we do not know the group that carried out the act. "But I can confirm to you that she has been freed by her abductors" he said. Meanwhile, a source close to the Idisi family said that they did not want to make any statement to the media on her release. Although family members of Mrs. Idisi confirmed her release, it could not be ascertained whether the kidnappers let her off based on her failing health which has been described as very critical. Security sources said she was in custody of Boylov in Bayelsa before her eventual release yesterday morning and has been rushed to an undisclosed hospital for treatment, which still raised concern among members of the family. Said one of the family sources, "Her condition was so bad that if they had kept her for another day, she would have died. That is why Chief Idisi had been warning of her health as she is hypertensive and had not been taking her medications since she was kidnapped". Spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the state, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, confirmed the release but said it was outside the jurisdiction of his men and therefore did not have full details of the release. However, the Public Relations Officer of Lonestar, Mr. Mike Ugorji confirmed the release but did not give details as they were more concerned with the physical stability of the released 56 year-old grandmother. Her release came on the heels of the arrest of one Sunday Ogbu suspected to have kidnapped a six year-old child, Ndamnze Chinda, who is the son of a pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God at Sani Abacha road, Pastor Dickson Chinda on April 27 and later demanded for N10 million. Meanwhile, the kidnapped boy while narrating his ordeal in the hands of Ogbu, said that he lured him out of the children department of the church with a promise to buy biscuits for him before he took him to an uncompleted building where he fed him with garri and biscuit. Luck, however, ran out on the kidnapper when he went to church to beg them for money, claiming that the boy was his son. The pastor of the church gave him N700 but called the police, who later arrested him. Ogbu, however, denied kidnapping the boy, saying he saw him along the road and took him with a view to helping and re-uniting him with his parents. An enraged Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu said Ogbu was a kidnapper who luck ran out on and asked him to say the truth instead of peddling lies, adding that he went to a church with a bible pretending to be a member and stole a child. ======================================================================================== Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ======================================================================================== [images//media.fastclick.net/w/ get.media?sid=7943&m=1&tp=1&d=s&c=1&f=b&v=1.4]