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MP calls for release of hostage

MP Gwyn Prosser is calling for the release of an oil worker from St Margaret's who has now been held hostage by kidnappers in Nigeria for seven months.

Robin Hughes' family say the Foreign Office should be doing more and Mr Prosser says he has taken the case up with government ministers.

Mr Hughes, who is 59, was among 27 oil workers who were taken by gunmen who hijacked their ship on September 9. But only two of them are still being held, Mr Hughes and Matthew Maguire, who is from Merseyside.

Their captors, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, say they will not be released until the Nigerian government frees their leader, Henry Okah.

He is being tried on arms trafficking charges.

Mr Prosser said that it appeared Mr Hughes was being looked after, but said he was taking every opportunity to raise the case with the Foreign Office, and with ministers, both formally and informally.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said they were concerned for the two men and had called for their immediate release.

"We continue to work closely with the Nigerian authorities, who are in the lead on the investigation, at all levels to help secure their safe and swift release.

"We are in close contact with the families of those being held."

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