Five kidnapped South Korean oil workers were released June 8 after being held hostage in Nigeria for more than 24 hr by separatist militants (OGJ Online, June 8, 2006).
Their release was confirmed by a police spokesperson in Nigeria’s Rivers State and by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, at whose gas plant the South Koreans had been working.
The militants, known as the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), released the South Koreans at the request of Mujahid Asari Dokubo, a jailed separatist leader. MEND was demanding Asari’s release in exchange for the Koreans.
The Daewoo and Korea Gas Corp. workers were taken from the Shell gas plant in southern Nigeria on June 7 after a Nigerian court denied Asari bail.
The attack came as South Korean officials visited Nigerian Petroleum Minister Edmund Daukoru on June 6 regarding South Korea’s wish to operate Nigerian oil fields.
