LAGOS (AFP) — Four US nationals arrested at the weekend in oil-rich southern Nigeria and detained since are a film crew working on a documentary about petroleum, their press attache said in a release received Tuesday.
"Director Sandy Cioffi, Tammi Sims, Cliff Worsham and Sean Porter entered the country legally on April 5th, having notified authorities about their intentions to film" in the Niger Delta, Leslye Wood, press secretary for "Sweet Crude" said in a statement issued from Seattle, the documentary's production base.
The four were arrested on Saturday by the Nigerian military while travelling by boat in the delta with Joel Bisina, a founder of the conflict resolution non-governmental organisation Niger Delta Professionals for Development, based in the port town of Warri.
Bisina was also arrested.
The five were taken on Monday to the federal capital Abuja for "further investigations", according to Major Omale Ochaguba, spokesman for the military Joint Task Force (JTF) policing the region.
Ochaguba said the US nationals were arrested for entering the Niger Delta without military clearance.
A US Embassy official in Nigeria confirmed that four US nationals had been arrested at the weekend but declined to make further comment.
The "Sweet Crude" press release said a lawyer had been retained for the four but that he has been denied access to his clients and information about any charges being brought against them.
In November 2007 two German documentary filmmakers were expelled from the country on alleged visa violations. An American aid worker resident in Nigeria was arrested with those filmmakers and was charged with spying. The charges were later dropped and she was released.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
