Niger Delta militants release 9 Shell Oil hostages

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Tuesday October 3, 2006

Abuja- Nine of the 25 workers of the giant Anglo-Dutch oil company, Shell, abducted in the Niger Delta were released, Shell spokesman Bisi Ojediran said in Abuja on Tuesday. Ojediran however said that the others are still being held, but he declined to give the nationalities of those still being held and those released.

The militant Joint Revolutionary Council, the umbrella body of militant groups in the Niger Delta, abducted the workers Monday as they an army patrol vessel at the Cawthorne Channel in the Niger Delta, killing five soldiers.

Nine other soldiers on patrol duty with those killed are still missing, while one soldier escaped from the assault.

Army spokesman in the area, Major Musa Sagir, had earlier said the soldiers were ambushed by the militants as they went about their routine duty in an army patrol vessel in the Niger Delta creeks on Monday.

He said "15 soldiers on guard duty at Cawthorne Channel were ambushed by about 70 militants using many boats in a surprise attack."

"In the process, we sustained casualties, but I cannot give you the real figure yet. But we have sent in a search and rescue team to the area," Sagir said.

Sagir said the militants, who stormed the patrol vessel of the army in speedboats, fired indiscriminately at the soldiers and sank the vessel.

"It was an ambush and they were able to sink the boat. We had 15 men on duty when the attack took place. The militants later escaped after the dastardly attack," he said.

The army spokesman said that a search-and-rescue operation was ongoing to determine the whereabouts of nine other soldiers in the patrol team.

The Joint Revolutionary Council, an umbrella body of some of the militant organizations in the Niger Delta, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was to send a signal to the Nigerian government that it could bite.

"The purpose of this celebration of our capability was to prove to the armed forces of the Nigerian State that we can take on them anywhere, anytime and anyhow," spokeswoman for the council, Cynthia Whyte, said.

Whyte added that the attacks might continue "unless the Nigerian state changes its level of insincerity as each time they agree on certain terms the government does not keep to them."

The council is demanding the immediate release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders. These are the Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who is facing graft charges and Mujahideen Asari- Dokubo, who has been prosecuted for treason.

The militant group is also demanding control of Nigeria's oil and gas deposits in the Niger Delta. Oil and gas accounts for more than 90 per cent of Nigeria's total annual income.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency