The South African man being held hostage in Nigeria has still not been released, his father-in-law said on Monday.
Johann Russouw, a radio personality at Afrikaans radio station RSG, said M-Net SuperSport sound engineer Nick Greyling was still in the hands of his captors.
“They [the negotiators] could not negotiate his release yet,” he said.
“The people who abducted him contacted the negotiators about some demand and said they would release him if the demand was met. That was this morning [Monday], and I have not heard anything yet,” Russouw said just before 3.30pm.
He had no idea what the demand was.
“The negotiators are busy with an extremely delicate process and are careful not to overplay their hand by releasing details of any demands. Even to the family.”
Greyling and two of his Nigerian SuperSport colleagues, commentator Bowie Attamah and cameraman Alexander Effiong, were kidnapped after their bus was attacked last Monday. Effiong later escaped his captors.
Russouw said his family was going through a very stressful time.
“With every phone call you get, you get hopeful, thinking this might be it [news about Greyling’s release], but then you get disappointed. With your son sitting so far away you just want to tell him to come home and you’ll take his place, but you can’t.”
Russouw said M-Net acquired the services of the best negotiators available.
“The support we got from them [M-Net] is unprecedented,” he said.
Department of International Relations spokesperson Nomfanelo Kota said negotiations were still ongoing and the department was monitoring the situation. — Sapa