The BBC’s Alex Last describes his surprise when he and other journalists went out into the mangrove swamps to meet Nigerian militants holding nine foreign oil-workers hostage and they handed one of them over to the journalists.
The militants appeared suddenly as we sped round a bend, emerging onto a broad river from a creek lined with mangrove forests.
Wearing black balaclavas and camouflage vests, the men from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta were keen to show off their weapons – assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
It had taken more than hour of travelling through winding creeks in wooden skiffs to meet the militants responsible for a string of attacks on the oil industry, including the kidnapping of nine foreigners.
The militants circled the two boats of journalists, firing into the air and the water. Some threw hand grenades near the boats, which exploded in a jet of water.
They chanted songs, and occasionally shouted about the lack of development in the Niger Delta. But they refused to speak any further.
They said they were simply a security escort.
Our guides said the militant commanders would only meet us once we had visited the villages of the area.
‘Not Afghanistan’
It was late in the afternoon when the militants appeared again.
This time, three large wooden speedboats roared up from the cover of the mangroves.
In one boat, flanked by masked gunmen, sat an American man with grey hair and a beard. He is Macon Hawkins, from Texas, kidnapped along with eight others almost two weeks earlier.
Standing in the middle of the boat, the commander announced a list of demands:
1. A pledge that the government does not launch reprisal attacks
2. The release of two prominent local leaders – former Bayelsa state governor and the militant leader Mujahid Dokubo Asari
3. For Shell to comply with a recent Nigerian court order and pay $1.5bn in compensation for oil pollution to the Ijaw community
And he warned of more attacks.
“Let Britain and the US know, the Niger Delta is not Iraq. Let them know it is not Afghanistan, but we are determined to stop the oil from flowing,” he said.
“If, after 49 years of oil exploration we have not seen anything from the oil, we will stop it from flowing. That is our resolution.”
Then he made an unexpected statement:
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta was releasing the American hostage, Macon Hawkins, for humanitarian reasons. It was his 69th birthday and he has diabetes.
The commander said the journalists would take him back to Warri.
We could not quite believe this was happening but the whole situation was already bizarre.
As Mr Hawkins clambered aboard, he looked in very good spirits.
“I feel great,” he said. “They told me this morning to be prepared, and they wanted me to meet a bunch of newspaper people to explain the situation. They kind of trusted me.
“It was typical Nigerian, that they do have respect for the elder people. They treated me quite well. They called me Papa.”
He said the other hostages were also well, and spent most of their time chatting or taking naps.
Five other hostages have since been freed, leaving two more Americans and a Briton still in the custody of the militants.
As dusk fell, the boats carrying us back through the creeks to Warri.
The militants watched for a while then roared off. Flags fluttering from the boats, their guns silhouetted again the sky.
Billion dollar operation
In the riverine areas of Niger Delta, you do not have to look far to see why there is conflict.
In sight of oil terminals, many communities lack the basics of clean water and electricity.
They complain their land and their fishing grounds have been polluted by the oil industry.
In the riverside village of Escravos, the huts of wood and thatched palm fronds are built on swampy ground.
The villagers had placed logs amongst the black, sulphurous-smelling mud to help get around.
The mud was stained with the colours of the rainbow, the colours of crude oil glistening on the surface.
In a complaint heard around the villages, people said their livelihoods were destroyed by oil and they had received no benefits from the industry which dominates their land.
It is not just the oil companies that are blamed for the situation. The federal and state governments are also accused of failing the Delta areas.
Money, supposedly for development, rarely reaches the communities in need on the ground.
Then there is the huge business of oil bunkering – the siphoning off of oil to sell on the black market.
It is a billion dollar operation, and people in the Delta say all sides are involved – local armed gangs at the low end of the chain, and military officers and politicians higher up.
Last year, two Nigerian Admirals were court-martialled for their part in the attempted theft of thousands of tonnes of crude oil by an Eastern European crime syndicate.