Hostage claim probe

Jun 3 2009 Birkenhead News

REPORTS that a Birkenhead man held hostage by a Nigerian militant group for nearly nine months will be released are being investigated by the Foreign Office.

Matthew Maguire, 35, from Birkenhead, was among 27 oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria when their oil supply vessel was hijacked on September 9.

The majority of the crew were later released but Mr Maguire and fellow Briton Robin Hughes, 59, remained hostages of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).

In April, ship captain Mr Hughes, originally from St Margaret’s Bay, near Dover, Kent, was released.

When he was freed Mr Hughes told his family to pass a message to Mr Maguire’s family that he was “fit, well and doing OK”.

The hostages were snatched from the boat off the coast of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. On Monday the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said they were hoping to release Mr Maguire shortly in honour of his 35th birthday on Monday.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: “We have seen the reports and are making enquiries. We call for the unconditional release of all hostages.”

In January, militants from the Mend released pictures of Mr Hughes and Mr Maguire, who were shown wearing shorts and flip-flops, looking dishevelled but not injured, in what appeared to be a thick forest.

The group said they would not be released until the Nigerian government freed the group’s leader, Henry Okah, who is currently being tried on charges of arms trafficking.

There have been hundreds of kidnappings in the southern Niger Delta in recent years. Earlier this month Mr Maguire’s partner Emma Dean told of her fears he would miss celebrating his 35th with children Ellie, Charlie and two-year-old Matthew.

He missed Ellie’s 11th birthday in April. Charlie turns 9 on June 9.

Mr Maguire’s captors allowed him to write home for the first time in March – six months after he was abducted.