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Nigerian Militants Say Fighters Surrendered

   VOA News 22 November 2010
   The  19  nineteen  oil and construction workers taken hostage by Niger
   Delta  militants and freed last week sit together in Port Harcourt, 18
   Nov 2010

Photo: AFP

   The  19  nineteen  oil and construction workers taken hostage by Niger
   Delta  militants and freed last week sit together in Port Harcourt, 18
   Nov 2010

   Nigeria's main militant group said one of its commanders and 62 of his
   followers  were  not  captured  by  the  military,  but  rather turned
   themselves in for a promised cash reward.
   The  military  had  said  it arrested the militants Friday in southern
   Nigeria's  Rivers  State.  On Saturday, it paraded the men in front of
   the  media  at  an  air  force  base  in  the southern oil hub of Port
   Harcourt.
   In  a statement Monday, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger
   Delta  (MEND)  refuted the government's account of the arrests, saying
   its fighters "handed themselves over" with "no exchange of gunfire."
   Nigerian   authorities   say   the  militants  kidnapped  19  oil  and
   construction workers in the Niger Delta region. The hostages, who were
   freed last week, included seven foreigners.
   The group has threatened more attacks on oil facilities.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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