Making all efforts for release of two abducted Indians in Nigeria, says Swaraj

New Delhi: India is making all efforts to secure the release of two Indians abducted from Gboko, a town in the Benue state of north-central Nigeria, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday.

The Minister also thanked Indian envoy in Abuja for repatriation of 11 Indians, who were released after languishing in a Nigerian jail for two years.

“I appreciate the efforts of our High Commissioner in Nigeria Shri BN Reddy for expediting their repatriation,” Swaraj tweeted.

Employees of a Merchant Navy firm, the crew’s ship got stranded in Nigeria and the entire crew was arrested for violating laws of international waters in 2014.

Meanwhile, Swaraj said all efforts were being made to secure the release of the two Indians abducted in Nigeria.

The duo – Mangipudi Sai Srinivas (from Andhara Pradesh) and his colleague Anish Sharma (from Karnataka) – were travelling to Dangote Cement Plc Plant in a car from their residential quarters around 7.20 pm last Wednesday when a group of armed men kidnapped them at a traffic signal.

“I spoke to Anish Sharma’s wife this morning. I assured her that we are doing our best to secure Anish and Srinivas’s release from abductors in Nigeria,” Swaraj said.

“I have deputed a senior officer to update the family regularly,” she tweeted.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup had on Friday described the abduction as “nothing surprising or new in that area”, saying such incidents keep happening there.

Asserting that there has been no ransom demand so far, the Spokesperson had said, “As far as our information goes there is no hand of terror group Boko Haram and it seems local criminal elements were responsible for the act.”