Nigerian militants holding nine foreign hostages on Monday denied plans to release them in batches and said they would not negotiate with a government committee constituted by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The nine oil workers, who include three Americans, two Egyptians, two Thais, one Briton and one Filipino, were seized on February 18 by militants belonging to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
A government committee headed by James Ibori, governor the oil-rich southern state of Delta, was set up immediately after the seizure to secure the speedy release of the hostages through dialogue.
The MEND, however, in an email statement to Xinhua on Monday, said they “have had no contact with the Ibori led committee and have no intention of doing so.”
“Recently we intimated the media of our willingness to release all low value hostages. The Delta state government today capitalized on this suggestion, claiming we had undertaken to release the hostages in batches. This is a fraudulent claim,” it said.
“In this regard, the suggested release of any hostage has been suspended indefinitely,” it stated.
Recent attacks by the militants on oil facilities in the west African country, the largest oil producer in Africa, has cut production by 455,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production, or 19 percent the country’s total output, and helped push up world oil prices.