Kidnapped Scots oilmen sue bosses for £200,000 over 'failure' to protect them
29 Dec 2009
Author: Charlotte Thomson
Country: Nigeria
TWO Scottish oil workers who were kidnapped by an armed gang in Nigeria are suing their bosses for £200,000, it was revealed yesterday.
Graeme Buchan and Sandy Cruden were among seven men snatched by an 18-strong gang in the Niger Delta region in 2006.
Mr Buchan, 32, was forced to tell his employers that one captive was dead, while he himself was being held hostage at gunpoint.
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Just two days before, 70 gunmen attacked a convoy of boats supplying a Shell oilfield in the neighbouring state of Rivers.
The crane technicians for Sparrows Offshore Services were eventually released after being held hostage for nearly three weeks.
Now, the two men are suing their employers amid claims that the Aberdeen-based company did not do enough to help them.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Balfour & Manson, the law firm representing the men, said: "My clients have not embarked upon these cases lightly.
"Time limits imposed by the court mean the actions had to be raised now if they are to receive fair compensation for the trauma they suffered as a result of this particularly unpleasant incident.
"The cases are based upon the general duties of care owed by employers to all employees.
"The employer ought to have taken more care for the safety of their workers in Nigeria."
Mr Buchan, of Stuartfield, near Mintlaw, and Mr Cruden, 46, of Inverurie, both Aberdeenshire, were beaten with machetes after being snatched by armed militants from a safe compound in the region.
They were working in Port Harcourt along with the other captives Paul Smith, from Peterhead, and George McLean, from Elgin, when they were kidnapped on 3 October.
Three other workers – from Romania, Malaysia and Indonesia – were also taken from the Exxon Mobil compound
after the gang stormed the facility, firing AK-47 rifles and pistols, as the group of oilmen were sitting at the works bar.
Two Nigerian security men were killed in the ensuing gunfight.
The men were then taken on an eight-hour speedboat journey into the Niger Delta swamps, and held in a makeshift camp under tarpaulins as the kidnappers demanded a £21 million ransom.
Mr Buchan was later forced by his captors to telephone his company and lie, saying his colleague Paul Smith had died. Mr Smith's family, including his four-year-old son Jordan, were told the devastating news.
Mr Buchan and Mr Cruden are now suing their employers for £100,000 each.
A spokeswoman for the company said she could not comment on the action.
"Sparrows Offshore worked intensively with the UK government, the police and the government and security agencies in Nigeria to bring about the safe release of three of our employees," the spokeswoman said.
"We are aware that two of these employees have now raised an action in respect of the kidnapping but cannot comment on the matter which is now before the court."
