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Daily Telegraph: Ransom is not enough for Nigerian kidnappers: Friday 20 Jan 2006


By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
(Filed: 20/01/2006)

Nigerian militants holding a British security expert and three other foreign oil workers hostage have said ransom offers would not sway them into releasing their captives.

The four men, abducted from a Royal Dutch Shell platform a week ago, would walk free only if Nigeria's government released two ethnic leaders charged with treason and embezzlement, the group said yesterday.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also warned of further attacks on petrochemical companies' installations across the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

Output has already been cut by 10 per cent and global oil prices climbed to a four-month high on Wednesday as markets fretted about effects of the kidnappings.

The militants, from the impoverished Ijaw tribe, are demanding control of the Niger Delta's oil wealth, payment of $1.5 billion by Shell to the local Bayelsa state government to compensate for pollution, and the release of three men including two Ijaw leaders.

Reports indicate that the Nigerian government and Shell wanted to pay for the hostages to be released and for oil operations to continue as normal.

The American oil worker could be released on medical grounds if his employer, US-based oil services firm Tidex, agrees to send their managing director to take his place, the kidnappers said.

10 December 2005: Nigerian who fled in disguise is arrested
 

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