The main armed militant group in southern Nigeria said that a British hostage it planned to release on Monday after holding him for about nine months had declined to go free.
“Mr Mathew Maguire has declined the gift of a release from captivity with an argument that he is now an advocate for change in the region and a honorary member of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta [MEND],” the group said in an e-mail to reporters.
“This has come as a surprise to us and we can not forcibly eject him from our camp against his will,” MEND said in the statement.
“He insists that his release should only be considered when [guerrilla leader] Henry Okah is freed to participate in a credible peace process or has been allowed to travel for his urgent kidney surgery,” it said.
An earlier statement on Monday by MEND said that it planned to release Maguire, an oil worker who has been in captivity since last September, as a birthday gift.
“Today, June 1 is Mathew Maguire’s birthday. He has spent close to nine months in captivity and we hope to release him today as his gift,” the group said in the statement.
He was abducted along with another Briton, Robin Barry Hughes, who was released in April on health grounds.
Hundreds of people, most but not all of them linked to the oil sector, have been kidnapped in the delta in the past three and a half years. Most have been released after a few days or weeks.
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