REPORTS that a Merseyside man held hostage by a Nigerian militant group for nearly nine months will be released are being investigated by the Foreign Office.

Matthew Maguire, 35, from Birkenhead, was among 27 oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria when their oil supply vessel was hijacked on September 9 last year.

The majority of the crew were later released but Mr Maguire and fellow Briton Robin Hughes, 59, remained hostages of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).

In April, ship captain Mr Hughes, originally from St Margaret’s Bay, near Dover, Kent, was released.

When he was freed Mr Hughes told his family to pass a message to Mr Maguire’s family that he was “fit, well and doing OK”.

The hostages were snatched from the boat off the coast of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

On Monday the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said they were hoping to release Mr Maguire shortly in honour of his 35th birthday, which was yesterday.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: “We have seen the reports and are making enquiries. We call for the unconditional release of all hostages.”