Kidnapped Thai calls to say all safe
One of the four Thai workers, who were abducted by an unknown gang in Nigeria, called his company to say he and the others were safe and had not been harmed, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Manasvi Srisodapol said yesterday.
The victim told the company that he would make contact again, the spokesman said, without identifying the caller.
The kidnapped Thais are husband and wife Somchok Punpinit, 55; and Bussaya Sripanya, 38; Somchok’s brother Thanawut, 50; and Chaiyan Taichompu, 46.
The four Thais and two Nigerians were on their way to work at an Israeli-operated fish farm in the southern Rivers State in Nigeria on Friday when a gang of about six people kidnapped them. Manasvi said Thai Ambassador to Nigeria Somchai Powcharoen has assigned his minister counsellor to go to Rivers State to take charge of the issue.
“The kidnappers have not demanded a ransom or anything else. When the demand is made, we can start negotiating,” he said.
Meanwhile relatives of the abducted Thais met in Udon Thani’s Nong Han district to seek help from MP Thongdee Manissarn. They said the four victims had travelled to Nigeria in December last year with a six-month visa, and returned home on June 9 when their visas expired. They returned to Nigeria on June 20 with new visas.
Somchok and Bussaya’s son, Panu Punpinit, 23, said his parents contacted him everyday via Facebook. Since there were no signs of danger, he and one of his cousins were scheduled to go to work in Nigeria and had already obtained a six-month visa. “We are about to leave. We’re just waiting for air tickets and my father’s confirmation of the travel date,” Panu said.
