Nigerian militants released six hostages -- five South Koreans and one Nigerian -- liberating them at the request of a jailed militant leader whose freedom they had demanded in exchange.
The hostages were seen arriving by car at the office of the regional governor in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt late on Thursday, a day after they were kidnapped from a Shell gas plant as part of a violent raid in Nigeria's oil-rich delta. There they were handed over to their employers, said Rivers state attorney general, Odein Ajumogobia.
The tired and disheveled men were escorted by a Nigerian senator who received the hostages from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND.
The militants said they released the workers in response to an appeal by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a prominent militant leader jailed last year. They had originally demanded his release in exchange for releasing the hostages.
The release of Dokubo-Asari, an ethnic Ijaw who has called for autonomy for southern Nigerians and was jailed on treason charges, has been a top militant demand since they took up arms earlier this year and began waging a violent campaign for redistribution of the country's oil wealth. It was unclear how or where Dokubo-Asari made the appeal.
MEND said they released the hostages around 4pm to Senator David Brigidi -- an ethnic Ijaw member of the Nigerian Senate who has spoken out in favor of securing greater local control of oil wealth.
Brigidi represents one of three senatorial constituencies in Bayelsa state, where the hostages were seized on Wednesday.
Earlier on Thursday, the group again warned the South Koreans' employer to leave the Niger Delta "or face even more drastic action" in the future.
The militant group has been responsible for a wave of attacks and hostage takings this year in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta. The group says the impoverished residents of the delta don't receive enough of the oil revenue.
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