Kiwi ex-cop in Nigeria tells of kidnapping attempt

Sandy Beckett is a former road policing boss. Photo / Amos Chapple

A former road policing boss who has worked in Nigeria believes the workers taken hostage will likely be released as long as the ransom is paid.

Sandy Beckett, the former head of Auckland's road policing unit, worked around Enugu, about three hours' north of where the workers were abducted yesterday. He says he was also nearly kidnapped while travelling to a job in Ninth Mile.

He was driving with other multinationals when armed gang members jumped out of the jungle.

However, thanks to his quick-thinking actions, he managed to drive them to safety.

"I was too close to stop and turn around so I changed gear and accelerated to the nearest gang member who was one of three carrying AK47s. I had no intention of stopping and they jumped out of the way and melted back into the jungle. It was pretty scary stuff."

Mr Beckett, who is now based in Australia and contracts as a road enforcement specialist around the world, was in Nigeria delivering a road safety strategies to Nigeria's Federal Road Safety Corps.

"I would be concerned for their whereabouts because while they have been taken by a group, possibly like [Islamic extremists] Boko Haram, they will be held to ransom I'd say. If they kill them they can't do it again because the companies and insurance companies wouldn't pay any ransom. So once the money is paid there's a high likelihood they will be released somewhere."He believes the victims of the latest kidnapping will be released if the ransom is paid.

He believes the group would most likely have been followed for some time before they were kidnapped.

"These guy that came out and had a crack at me in the jungle would have known for weeks and weeks that they were going to target me."

He says Nigeria is a "crazy place" with locals thinking any white person was a "rich American".

"I don't think it was anything to do with race, but everybody there thought I was a big rich American. They all think you're a rich American and then you become a target, it doesn't matter what you say to them."

He says the country's road toll was the worst in the world. Officials "estimate" at least 30,000 people die each year -- however, that was just the deaths police were made aware of.

A Nigerian soldier walks near a damaged army vehicle at the Bosso military camp following attacks by Boko Haram terrorists in the region, June 17, 2016. (File photo by AFP)

At least three Australian nationals and an Australian resident have been kidnapped in a deadly ambush raid by unknown gunmen in southern Nigeria, Australia’s prime minister has announced.

“These are the facts as we know them: three Australians and one Australian resident were among seven people kidnapped in an attack on an Australia contractor’s operations in Nigeria. One person was killed in the attack,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters on Thursday.

He added that the Australian resident is a New Zealander by origin.

According to a statement by the Nigerian police, the incident occurred when a group of about 30 unidentified armed men attacked the workers’ vehicle on the outskirts of the port city of Calabar, the capital of Cross River State in the Niger Delta region, at around 5:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Wednesday.

According to witnesses, the gunmen first shot and killed the local driver on the spot and dragged the abductees to waiting boats.

There are conflicting reports on the nationalities of the three other victims, but police said at least two of them were Nigerians.

Meanwhile, Irene Ugbo, a spokeswoman for Cross River State police, said that two of the non-expatriate abductees have managed to flee, without giving more details.

The file photo shows a Lafarge Africa’s cement mixer at the company’s factory in Nigeria.

The workers had been employed by Perth-based Australian mining and engineering company Macmahon Holdings, which itself is a contractor to cement company Lafarge Africa.

“It is a very serious kidnapping, a very serious criminal assault,” Turnbull, the Australian premier, further said, adding “We don’t know at this stage the identity of the kidnappers and families in Australia are notified of course.”

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that authorities in Australia were working with the Nigerian government to confirm the details of the attack and find ways to rescue the kidnapped individuals.

Viola Graham-Douglas, a spokeswoman for Lafarge Africa, also said on Wednesday that “Macmahon is working with the security agencies to resolve this situation.”

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the attack and abductions.

It is unlikely for the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group — which is active in the northern and northeastern parts of Nigeria — to have been involved in the raid.

Thus, local criminal gangs, which kidnap foreigners for ransom, may be to blame.

A New Plymouth rig worker who was kidnapped at gunpoint by Nigerian raiders nine years ago says rescuing the hostages comes down to the ransom being paid.

A New Zealander, three Australians and a South African were abducted in Nigeria's southeast on Wednesday.

The foreign mine workers, who were employed by Perth-based mining firm Macmahon Holdings, were travelling in four vehicles accompanied by security guards and police when they were ambushed near a bridge on the outskirts of the city of Calabar.

In 2007, Bruce Klenner, 56, was among a group of six workers - including fellow Kiwi Brent Goddard - who were woken by gunfire and the doors of their rooms on the barge-mounted rig being blown up during the early hours of July 4.

Mr Klenner's wife, Linda, says news of another Kiwi possibly being taken as a hostage in south Nigeria just brought all of their own grief back and she worries for the families now involved.

"It was just me and the girls at home, of course, and it just really wore ... we had people ringing from everywhere, the phone was off the hook, it was all over the news ... it was pretty full on ... I'm just remembering now actually and it was just hell, I couldn't sleep for eight days, I couldn't, you just jump every time the phone rings."
Mrs Klenner says during the hostage period it took a couple of days before she knew that her husband was still alive."This has made it all come boom, straight back at us ... I feel really sorry for those people, they're about to go through hell."

Mr Klenner says he feels for the families involved, too.

"You feel for the family back here and I sort of know roughly what he'd be going through as well."

He says the chances of them being freed depended on a lot of circumstances but it was mostly to do with money.

"Hopefully it's good, if they've got good negotiators helping things along but at the end of the day it all boils down to money. Once they cough up with the goods, with the money, they're all good."

Mr Klenner says he and the rest of the hostages were kept in a hut in the middle of the jungle and were fed twice a day, their "slap up meals" consisting of spam and eggs.

"We never got mistreated so hopefully these fullas are on the same sort of wave length and everything is going okay for them."

Mr Klenner says the kidnappers had to look after them to ensure they got paid their ransom - if any hostages died there would be havoc.

"If [death] happens their whole village would get annihilated just about most probably - there's a lot of payback."

Mrs Klenner says it's been a long road to get her husband back on track - even though he was back at work four weeks later.

"The worst part was when Bruce came home. It's taken him so long to get right - we'd go for a walk or to the kids swimming sports and those cap guns would go off and he'd just jump, and we'd have to leave. The post traumatic stress was just massive."

Once Mr Klenner arrived back in New Zealand his employer Lonestar Drilling washed their hands of him, she says, and failed to give him his last month's worth of wages, which just added to the family's strain.

Mr Klenner says the company was contracted by oil giant, Shell, who could have paid the outstanding wages, but they didn't.

"They could have come to the party if they wanted to but obviously they didn't want to."

He continues to work around the world on rigs in countries including Tunisia, Spain, Libya, Indonesia and South America.

"You've got to, you've still got to put food on the table. I think I was home 4 1/2 weeks and I went back to work. You still got mortgages to pay and you still got bills coming in, you got to keep going. It just took a while to adjust."