Two of eight Western oil workers abducted by armed militants off a drilling platform in southern Nigeria were freed early on Sunday, but the other six are still being held, the president’s office said.
”Only two have been released so far according to the negotiation team,” presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo said.
Nigerian police said earlier that all eight hostages had been freed.
”Two Britons have been released,” said Ekiyor Welson, spokesperson for the state of Bayelsa where the attack took place.
He said the remaining hostages — an American, a Canadian and four other Britons – would also be released on Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, federal police spokesperson Haz Iwendi said that all the hostages had been released after the resolution of a dispute between the oil companies employing the hostages and villagers from the Niger Delta zone where they operate.
The hostages — an American, a Canadian and six Britons — were kidnapped early on Friday by several dozen heavily armed men from an offshore drilling platform in the Niger Delta.
The drilling rig is located on oil field OML-122, situated between 25km and 60km off the Nigerian coast and operated as a Nigerian joint venture with Equator Exploration Nigeria Limited and Peak Petroleum Industries Nigeria Limited.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and the world’s sixth-largest exporter with an average of 2,6-million barrels a day, most of which is derived from the Niger Delta area.
The oil-rich region has since the start of the year been a theatre of violence against foreign oil companies and their employees, launched by armed separatists and local communities demanding a larger share in oil revenues and compensation for the destruction of their ecosystem by oil exploration. — AFP
