The two Indian engineers kidnapped in Nigeria are likely to be released by Monday, as the duo’s employer has started paying the ransom in installments.
A gang of armed militants kidnapped Debashis Kakoty of Assam and Sunil Dave of Maharastra from Nigeria’s oil capital Port Harcourt on Saturday.
Both are employees of Indorama, an Indonesian MNC, engaged in Eleme Petrochemical Plant at Port Harcourt in oil-rich Niger Delta.
The Indorama authorities on Sunday told Debashis’s family that he and his colleague would be freed by Monday. “They informed my daughter-in-law Lata, who is also in Port Harcourt, that the first installment of the ransom had already been paid and the rest would be paid shortly,” Ajit Kakoty, father of Debashis, said from Sivasagar in eastern Assam.
Mr Kakoty, a retired professor, and his wife Kumkum Kakoty could not sleep for a while ever since they got a call from his daughter-in-law at around 9.30 pm on Saturday.

Militant raid
She told the elderly couple that a gang of militants had raided a block of flats occupied by Indorama at Port Harcourt and seized 10 employees of the Multi National Company, including Debashis and Sunil.
“The security guards could rescue eight hostages. But the kidnappers fled with Debashis and Sunil,” Mr Kakoty quoted his daughter-in-law saying over phone from Niger Delta.

Early release
An anxious Mr Kakoty wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India and the Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Arun Trigunyat, seeking New Delhi’s intervention in securing early release of his son from the kidnappers’ captivity.
“Though talks are on with the kidnappers and the ransom is being paid by the company, we are still tense and anxiously waiting for my son and his colleague’s release,” said Mr Kakoty.
Debashis, a science graduate from Sivasagar College, got a bachelor’s degree in fire engineering from Indian Institute of Fire Engineering in Nagpur.
He worked with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for six years, before joining Indorama as a safety officer for Eleme Petrochemical Complex in Nigeria.
He shifted to Port Harcourt with his wife Lata and the one-year-old son, Aditya. Niger Delta is a vast wetland, where almost all the oil reserves of Nigeria are located.
But the region has been witnessing violence, as poverty and lack of development fuelled resentment against the government and oil companies, who were accused of doing little for upliftment of local people.
As violence escalated in the past few months, many foreign workers of the oil and petrochemical companies left the region – resulting in a drastic fall in production.
“My daughter-in-law told me that she would also persuade my son to quit the job and return to India immediately after his release,” said Mr Kakoty.
The militants so far kidnapped nearly 100 expatriate workers at Niger Delta this year, but most of them were released after their employers paid hefty ransoms.