Some Kidnapped Foreign Hostages Still Alive - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday stated that following security report at his disposal, he was suspecting that some out of the seven expatriates said to have been murdered by the Boko Haram faction, Ansaru group, may not have been killed, as they may still be alive.

According to him, while federal government is suspecting that some of the victims may have contacted one disease or the other which must have claimed their lives, some of them may still be alive, as the video released by the group was suspicious.

The hostages, who were identified as natives of Greece, Lebanon, Italy and Britain were kidnapped in February at a construction site in Bauchi only for Ansaru to release a video online last week to show that the group had killed them in cold blood.

The president, who foreclosed the possibility of all the foreigners being killed when he received the Lebanese President, Michel Sleiman, on a state visit at the presidential villa, Abuja, condemned the terrorist activities in the country.

At a joint press conference after a closed-door session with his Lebanese counterpart, Jonathan said, “It is a sad moment in our history. The issue of the excesses of Boko Haram and related organisations getting involved in terrorist activities. It is quite sad. It is a very ugly phase which we would pass through. From the date of the kidnap, various nationals are involved and we have been working with our own friendly nations including the United Kingdom and others to see that these people are rescued.”

Noting that he has already briefed President Sleiman that Nigerian government was still working to get to the root of the matter to see if they had been killed,  with a view to getting their corpses, Jonathan further stated that: “Because of the ugly experience we had in Sokoto when a similar situation happened and about the time we were to rescue, the people they were shot. Security services were being careful so that if they notice invasion, they would not just turn round and kill the people.

, along that process the place where they suspected to be holding them is quite a difficult area. Rocky terrain that you cannot easily access.

“Over the period they release some information through the social media but analysis of that information does not really give us a conclusive position so we discussed it separately. We really suspect that some probably have died either from health or other related causes or direct killing but we still believe that not all the seven hostages because even the release in the social media did not really show all the seven so we are still working on it”.

A communique issued at the end of the meeting also noted that the two leaders held talks on promoting and further  strengthening the bilateral relations between Nigeria and Lebanon and provided guidance and direction at the bilateral talks held to further enhance their ties of friendship.

They also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, even as they noted the significant roles played by the two countries in their respective regional organisations, notably Lebanon in the Arab League and Nigeria in the EVOWAS and African Union.

The communique reads in part: “The two countries pledged to work through these institutions to support  theUnited Nations in the discharge of its mandate ad provided for in the Charter. They lauded Nigeria’s exemplary role in contributing to the peace keeping efforts of the Unites Nations.

“Both leaders welcomed the ongoing efforts aimed at reforming the Unites Nations in order to equip it better to meet the current challenges in the maintenance of international peace and security. In this regard they called for the urgent reform of he United Nations Security Council to make it more democratic and reflective of the changes in the international architecture since 1946.



-- Leadership