Abducted oil worker fears for his life

A man who identified himself as an American kidnapped by militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta last month – one of three including Briton John Hudspith – today said he feared for his life because he had been separated from the two other hostages.

The militants said they had split up the captives for strategic purposes.

The comments came during a telephone call. Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta passed the phone to the man, who identified himself as US citizen Cody Oswald.

Militants have been holding Oswald and two others – American Russel Spell and Briton John Hudspith – since a February 18 raid on an oil industry barge.

“I was separated from the rest of the guys after I was allowed to talk to my family on Saturday,” Oswald said.

“Since then I have not seen them and I really fear for my life. Something needs to happen to see that their demands are met,” he added, before the phone was apparently taken from him.

The militant group also said a long-threatened attack on unspecified oil facilities would come in “the following days.”

The militants claim to be fighting to win a greater share of oil wealth on behalf of the Niger Delta’s impoverished inhabitants, who have remained poor despite the fact that most of Nigeria’s oil is being pumped from the swampy region. The government calls the militants “criminals and oil thieves”.

A militant spokesman who initiated the telephone call reiterated their demands for the release of jailed ethnic Ijaw leaders and the payment by Royal Dutch Shell of £857m (€1.24bn) in compensation to Ijaw communities for oil pollution, also demanded by Nigerian lawmakers, in exchange for the hostages.