Nigerian army says 50 arrested over kidnappings

The Nigerian army on Saturday said it had arrested more than 50 militants suspected of involvement in a string of recent kidnappings of oil workers.

Special taskforce spokesman Timothy Antigha told AFP the army raided a camp in the oil hub of Rivers state in southern Nigeria on Friday and rounded up "the gang leader and over 50 of his gang members" responsible for the kidnapping of 19 oil workers, including foreigners in recent weeks.

"They were the group that abducted the Exxon Mobil workers and the Afren group workers and were responsible for other previous kidnappings and robberies in the past," he said.

The military freed the 19 hostages in an operation on Wednesday from the creeks of the Niger Delta region, the heart of one of the world's largest oil industries. The victims included American, Canadian, French, Indonesian and Nigerian nationals.

But no arrests were made during the operation to rescue the hostages.

The gang was captured from Bokokiri in the Degema local government area of Rivers state during an operation that lasted eight hours on Friday, said a military official.

"We had surrounded the whole place and ...so they had to surrender. They were forced to surrender because of fire power," said one senior military official who took part in the raid.

The source however said in all 62 gang members were arrested.

"They didn't deny any of the crimes and said they are sorry for what they did," the source told AFP.

Over 30 rifles, some 10,000 rounds of ammunition and 12 machine guns were recovered.

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