An American oil worker held hostage in Nigeria is seriously ill and if he dies his captors will kill the other three men in their custody, one of the kidnappers told Reuters in a telephone call yesterday.
The hostages each spoke of the deteriorating conditions in the mosquito-plagued Niger delta on their ninth day in captivity and passed the telephone to a man who identified himself as the ground commander.
“One of them is sick, badly sick and could give up tonight,” the commander said, referring to Patrick Landry, an American. “If one of them dies, we kill them all.” Nigel Watson-Clark, the British hostage, read out the militants’ demands, which include the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders and greater local control over the region’s oil wealth. “I have got to tell you we are under a lot of pressure here and things aren’t too good,” he added, calling on the Britain to press President Obasanjo for their release.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger delta has recently staged attacks on Nigeria’s oil infrastructure, curbing oil output by 10 per cent. The hostages were abducted from an offshore oilfield eight days ago.