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March 10th, 2013 
David Schulberg the 3rd
In a statement today William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said it was “likely”
the man had been killed by his captors in an “act of cold-blooded murder”.
In a statement, Mr Hague said: “It is with deep sadness that I must
confirm that a British construction worker, held hostage in Nigeria since 16
February, is likely to have been killed at the hands of his captors, along
with six other foreign nationals who we believe were also tragically
murdered.
“This was an act of cold-blooded murder, which I condemn in the strongest
terms. My thoughts are with his family, and the families of the other
hostages, who will be devastated by this tragic loss.
“I offer them our deep condolences at this terrible time, and know that
the thoughts of people up and down our country will be with them.
“Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the
terrorists. I am grateful to the Nigerian Government for their unstinting
help and co-operation.
“We are utterly determined to work with them to hold the perpetrators of
this heinous act to account, and to combat the terrorism which so blights
the lives of people in Northern Nigeria and in the wider region.”
The hostages were from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. They were kidnapped
from their construction company’s compound in northeastern Nigeria last
month.
The Greek and Italian governments separately said yesterday that their
intelligences services had new information that suggested the allegation was
correct.
“Our checks conducted in co-ordination with the other countries concerned
lead us to believe that the news of the killing of the hostages seized last
month is true,” the foreign ministry in Rome said in a statement.
“This is a horrific act of terrorism for which there is no explanation
except barbaric and blind violence.” Several Nigerian news websites
carried versions of a story that first appeared on February 23 claiming that
the British aircraft seen at Abuja were on their way to Bauchi state, where
the kidnapping took place.
There were there, one report stated, “to prepare the ground for the
eventual release of the foreigners”.
Britain’s High Commissioner to Nigeria was quoted in the article denying this,
saying the aircraft were part of “routine military-to-military
engagement”.
But in its statement saying it had executed the hostages, Ansaru included
links to some of the stories online, as part of its justification for the
executions.
The British hostage has not been named. The group were all contractors for a
Lebanese road construction company, Setraco, that has extensive operations
in northern Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria faces repeated attacks from a series of fundamentalist
militia who are variously campaigning for strict Islamic law to be applied
to the region, or against Western operations elsewhere in the world.
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