Nigeria hostages won’t be released: militants

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian militants believed to be holding four foreign oil workers hostage said on Friday they did not plan to release them any time soon, dashing hopes of an imminent end to the 17-day crisis.

A spokesman for Bayelsa state, which is leading government contacts with the kidnappers, had said negotiators had reached a point where the foreigners — an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and a Honduran — could be released at any time.

But in an e-mail to Reuters the militants said: “I promised you the hostages were going nowhere in spite of the rumors and repeat that to you.”

The militants added that more hostages could be taken soon.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta is demanding more local control over the region’s huge oil wealth, the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders and compensation to delta villages for decades of oil pollution.

Reuters