ENI CEO Paolo Scaroni has backed Nigeria’s plans to negotiate to try to secure the release of its kidnapped oil workers in a meeting with the country’s president, the Italian oil giant said on Wednesday.
In a statement, ENI said Scaroni supported Nigeria’s plan to avoid using any armed confrontation to free the hostages kidnapped in the Niger delta this month.
Scaroni, who had arrived in Nigeria to meet President Olesegun Obasanjo to discuss the fate of the hostages, later told Italian television that he was more confident of the hostages’ release following the meeting.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) abducted one Lebanese and three Italian workers on December 7 from the Brass oil export terminal operated by ENI unit Agip.
The militant group has said the Italian oil company has offered ransoms for their release and said they would rather kill the men than free them for cash.
It is demanding the release of two jailed leaders from the Niger delta, compensation to villagers for oil pollution, transfer of control over oil resources from the government to local communities and reparations for 50 years of “enslavement” by the oil industry in return for the hostages.