Nigerian militants take cash, keep foreign hostages

ABUJA, Jan 3 (Reuters) A Nigerian militant group said today it had seized 545,000 dollars sent by Italian oil firm Agip to obtain the release of four foreign workers kidnapped on December 7 but had kept the men hostage.

Eni, Agip's parent company, said it had no direct contact with any other parties and was working with the Nigerian authorities and the Italian foreign ministry to secure the release of the hostages.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which wants four prisoners from the Niger Delta freed in exchange for the three Italians and one Lebanese, said Agip had sent middlemen with cash to persuade MEND guards to let them go.

''(Agip's plan) involved paying 70 million naira to those supposed to be guarding the hostages, for the hostages to be guided to a point where a boat was to be stationed to take them out of the creeks,'' the MEND said in an e-mail.

''A middleman brought 70 million naira to one of our camps where the attempt was immediately reported. Needless to say, the money has been confiscated and will be put to better use.'' The MEND said such plans endangered the lives of the hostages as their guards had orders to shoot them if any attempt was made to release them without authorisation.

Attacks on oil facilities and abductions of foreign oil workers have plagued the Niger Delta for years, but the violence worsened in 2006 and is expected to escalate further in the build-up to Nigeria's general elections in April.

Nigeria, an OPEC member and the world's eighth-biggest exporter of crude, gets all its oil from the Niger Delta but the impoverished region of mangrove-lined creeks and swamps has long been neglected by the central and local governments.

Poverty and frustration at an industry that creates few jobs while polluting the environment fuel militancy and crime.

FACELESS GROUP The MEND, a faceless group which emerged in late 2005, launched a series of raids on oil facilities last February which shut down over 500,000 bpd of oil output -- a fifth of Nigeria's oil production capacity. That output has yet to resume.

The MEND captured dozens of expatriates during a series of sophisticated raids in January and February last year. All were released unharmed on undisclosed terms after up to five weeks.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in the Niger Delta and most hostages are released unharmed after money changes hands.

But the MEND says it does not want money and will release its four captives only in exchange for four prisoners in Nigerian jails: an impeached state governor, a militant leader and any two others of Niger Delta origin.

Since the abductions, the MEND has also detonated three car bombs in the delta's main city, Port Harcourt, prompting oil majors Shell and Total to pull out hundreds of relatives of their expatriate staff.

The MEND said yesterday that Roberto Dieghi, one of the Italian hostages, was suffering from various ailments and it would allow doctors from the humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Doctors Without Borders, to visit him.

The MSF head of mission in Port Harcourt said the group had not been contacted by anyone from the MEND.

REUTERS PB KN2111