Navy vows to give hostage-takers tough time

Spokesman for the Navy, Captain Obiora Medani, expressed regrets at the killing of the Briton but said this would not alter the military�s resolve.

�Yesterday�s (Wednesday�s) operation is in line with government�s directive to flush out criminals and terrorists from the Niger Delta. It is unfortunate that a foreigner was killed during the operation. We are not going to change our strategy. We will smoke out the militants until they desist from their criminal and deadly acts,� he said.

He also denied that the navy lost one of its men in the gun encounter. � I am telling you authoritatively that no naval personnel died. The abductors actually suffered many casualties and a Briton was killed during the crossfire. In fact, the navy deserves commendation for this gallantry not false alarm that an officer was killed,� he said.
The name of the Briton who died was given as David Hunt, while Pietro Caputo, an Italian, who was wounded is said to be responding to treatment in a hospital.

MEND denies casualties

Claims that some of the militants were killed were disputed yesterday by a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), who said: �None of the kidnappers died. All seven escaped (from the navy) and six were captured by a local vigilance group in the vicinity and are being taken for interogation in one of our camps.�

The MEND spokesman, who asked to remain anonymous, also contested the army�s claim that some 10 armed men were involved in the hostage-taking. �The kidnappers were seven in number and four of them were armed,� he said.

MOSOP reacts

However, reacting to Wednesday�s gun battle, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr Ledun Mitee, said he was �saddened by such a development because it has put Nigeria on the wrong side of history being the first time that a foreigner has been killed� in such circumstances.

Mitee insisted his group does not �encourage hostage-takings and attacks on oil installations,� saying these �condemnable acts should stop.�

But he said the killing �shows that the government has to change the way it reacts to the ugly situation in the Delta. Violence begets violence and this will lead us to nowhere. The government should embrace dialogue and peaceful means of resolving the problems with the militants.�
But Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a recent report entitled �Fuelling the Niger Delta Crisis� underlined the difficulties inherent in defending oil facilities and workers, particularly �in the Niger Delta�s tangle of swamps and rivers,� a swathe of land the size of the whole of Scotland.

Security beefed up

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in the creeks of Bayelsa State following Wednesday�s gun duel.
Contacted, the commander of the military outfit, �Operation Restore Hope�, Brig General Alfred Ilogha, said there was no cause for alarm but that whar was happening was a routine change of guard.