Six Britons, one American and a Canadian were kidnapped from a rig that was drilling off Nigeria's southern coast. The oil rig was operated by Aberdeen, Scotland-based Dolphin Drilling Ltd. for the Nigerian oil company Peak Petroleum.
Confusion surrounded the men's fate earlier Sunday, with a police spokesman first reporting all eight were released then retracting his statement to say the kidnappers had only released two Britons. A presidential spokeswoman had said the other six were expected to be released soon.
Police didn’t say whether a ransom was paid and did not say who was responsible for the hostage-taking.
The Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta, the main militant group responsible for a wave of attacks and hostage takings this year in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, has said it was not responsible for the kidnappings. The group, known as MEND, which has kidnapped oil workers in the past as part of a campaign for a better distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth, had said it believed the most recent kidnapping was purely a moneymaking scheme.
Nigeria, which normally pumps 2.5 million barrels of crude a day, is the fifth-largest source of oil imports to the United States. But I think they consider that this position gives them more rights than they actually have.
