The four men, three Italians and one Lebanese, taken hostage December 7 in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria will not be released for Christmas, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which is holding them said.
“They believe they will be released soon. They don’t seem to comprehend that we do not take money for hostages. They haven’t had a bath since their capture, thinking they are leaving each day,” the armed separatist group said in an email sent to AFP.
“Send them some stuff to celebrate Christmas with. I have directed that they be allowed a call each on Christmas day,” the message went on.
The Italians, Francesco Arena, Cosma Russo et Roberto Dieghi, and their Lebanese colleague Imad Saliba were snatched when MEND fighters raided an oil facility belonging to Agip of Italy on the Brass field in the southern delta state of Bayelsa.
MEND claimed responsibility for the attack a day later, saying it would keep the four “for years” if that was what it took to make its demands heard.
MEND says it is seeking to obtain the release of the former Bayelsa state governor Diepreye Alamieseigha, jailed on corruption charges, and separatist leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is in prison on treason charges.
It also wants compensation to communities affected by oil spillages and for those communities to have greater control over the delta’s resources.
MEND also said it would carry out other attacks over the following days.
Observers say oil companies operating in the delta unwittingly encourage hostage-taking by paying large sums of cash on the side to obtain the release of their personnel.
None of the companies targeted has admitted to paying money for the release of staff.