Legislator's mother abducted in Nigerian oil delta

YENAGOA, Nigeria, Aug 14 (Reuters) Nigerian gunmen kidnapped the mother of a state legislator in the southern oil producing Niger Delta, the latest in a spate of abductions of relatives of prominent people, authorities said today.

The woman, whose son is a member of the Bayelsa state house of assembly, was abducted last night from her home in Brass, a remote coastal area of Bayelsa which is one of three core oil states in the delta.

It is the third abduction in less than a month targeting relatives of Bayelsa legislators. The 11-year-old son of another member was abducted on Aug. 7 and is still missing, while the elderly mother of the speaker of the house was freed on Aug. 3 after 10 days in captivity.

These incidents are part of a new trend in the delta, where kidnappers used to snatch mostly foreign oil workers to extort money from their firms but have now started targeting relatives of people they think could pay a good ransom.

In neighbouring Rivers state, two 3-year-old children were kidnapped in July. One had a British father while the other was the son of a traditional chief.

Expatriate workers are still being targeted. Over 200 of them have been kidnapped since early 2006 and most have been released unharmed in exchange for ransoms. At least five are still in captivity in different parts of the delta.

Violence in the impoverished delta surged early last year when armed rebels demanding control over oil revenues blew up pipelines and oil wells. Their raids shut down a fifth of oil output from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter.

But since then the violence has degenerated into an uncontrollable crime wave.

REUTERS CS ND1344