Irina Ekpo-Umo, who is married to a Nigerian and is a senior manager with the local branch of the British services company Compass Group, was kidnapped Saturday night while returning from work in the country's main oil city of Port Harcourt. Gunmen stopped her car and took the woman away, demanding $1.2 million in ransom.
"Hostages are sometimes released if the ransom is paid, but this leads to more kidnapping incidents," an expert at the KGB anti-terrorist center said. "If you pay once, the snowball becomes an avalanche."
Compass Group has proposed Irina's brother travel to Nigeria to participate in negotiations for her release, but the source said such a move would be unreasonable.
"If her brother goes to Nigeria, there will be a risk of being forced to pay a ransom for two people instead of one," the source said.
Belarus has no diplomatic mission in Nigeria, and the Russian Embassy is handling the case at its request. Viktor Goncharov, an Embassy counselor, said earlier in the day that the Embassy had applied to the Nigerian Foreign Ministry for assistance in resolving the incident.
He added that two employees of the Embassy had left for Port Harcourt to try to establish closer contacts with local law enforcement officials and find out what actions were being taken to secure her release.
Goncharov said Monday, referring to Compass Group, that the woman was alive and in a satisfactory condition and that the abductors had made no other demands.
Militants fighting against the Nigerian government for greater autonomy in the oil-rich Niger Delta have intensified their attacks lately on oil industry facilities that are largely run by Western companies.
The latest kidnapping has brought the total number of foreign workers abducted in Nigeria to 28 in a week. Eight hostages have already been released.
