Ahamefula Ogbu
21 July 2008
Port Harcourt — Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has offered to intervene to ensure the release of the German hostages working for Julius Berger who were kidnapped July 11 at Rumuji, along East-West, Rivers State.
MEND said its intervention was because of the failure of the security agencies to make any headway in the release of the hostages which it attributed to their poor intelligence ability.
MEND, according to a statement on its official site said it had already identified the group which carried out the attack with a view to ensuring an unconditional and safe release of the two Germans.
"MEND has located and identified the culprits and will begin negotiations with the kidnappers in the hope for a safe and unconditional release of the captives," it claimed.
According to Gbomo Jomo who signed the statement, MEND's intervention is predicated on their consideration of hostage - taking as a criminal act especially as the men taken hostage were involved in construction of infrastructure which is meant for the development of the region.
"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) will intervene towards the release of the two German construction staff of Julius Berger who were ambushed and kidnapped for ransom in Rivers state of Nigeria on Friday July 11, 2008 because from all indications, the inept Nigerian security forces have been unable to make any progress, towards their freedom.
"We consider such criminal acts as a duty for the law enforcement agencies as practiced in every part of the world and as a rule, never get involved. However, this case will be an exception to the rule because the men are involved in construction of infrastructure in the Niger Delta region," MEND said.
The kidnappers were said to have stormed the camp of Julius Berger near Rumuji and made away with one of the hostages while their attempt to take the second worker was foiled by soldiers guarding the facility.
Sources however said the hoodlums staged a come back where they encountered the second hostage in a bullet proof vehicle and tried all they could to stop the vehicle and take the second hostage.
At a point, after shooting consistently, they stopped the vehicle by blocking it with a bus but could not open the doors. After shooting at it for sometime, they allegedly threw some explosives under the vehicle which forced it to overturn and forced the four doors to open.
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