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Nigeria to assure Philippines all will be done to free hostages
AFP
ABUJA
Petroleumworld.com 01 23 06Nigeria plans to assure the government of the Philippines that it is doing everything in its power to obtain the release of the six Filipinos who were seized by unidentified men at the weekend, officials said Monday.
"The foreign minister will be speaking with the representative of the Philippine government here to explain the situation in Nigeria and to say that it is not that we are not doing our best to ensure that those that have been seized get back home safe and sound," President Olusegun Obasanjo's spokeswoman, Remi Oyo, told AFP Monday.
The six men are being held on a cargo ship in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The latest kidnapping marks the second time Filipinos have been held hostage in the region in the past six months.
It prompted Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Monday to order workers not to travel to Nigeria."The president has ordered a temporary halt to deployments to Nigeria until the security of our nationals is guaranteed," her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.
Oyo said Nigeria saw the Philippines as a "friendly nation" and that Arroyo's travel ban would be handled "in a friendly manner".
She further said that Obasanjo "is very concerned and unhappy about the situation and he has said that his government will no longer continue to treat the hostage-takers with kid gloves".
Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Ed Malaya told AFP that Nigeria was one of the biggest employers of Filipino workers in Africa, with some 3,900 Filipinos employed here at the end of 2006.
Earlier Monday, Nigerian officials said they were intensifying efforts to secure the release of the six Filipino hostages.
According to two different separatist groups in the delta, the men were seized by disgruntled youths from a local community rather than by an armed group in the strictest sense.
No group has so far directly claimed responsibility for the attack.
The latest kidnapping brings to nine the number of foreigners currently being held hostage in the region. The three others are two Italians and a Lebanese national.
In the past eight days one Italian, five Chinese and nine South Korean hostages have been freed by their respective captors.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of kidnappings and attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta since the beginning of last year.
In 2006 more than 60 foreigners, mostly oil workers, were kidnapped, and dozens of Nigerians were killed by militants and bandits.
AFP 22 2108 GMT 01 07
Copyright© 1999 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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