By Ben Agande & Uduma Kalu, with Agency Report

ABUJA—President Jonathan, yesterday, said he suspected that some of the workers of the Setraco Construction Company, who were kidnapped by the Ansaru militant group may still be alive.

Addressing a joint press conference with the visiting Lebanese President, Michel Sleiman, at the State House, President Jonathan said a combination of the difficulty of the terrain where the kidnapped foreigners are suspected to be and the fear that their kidnappers may kill, them has stopped Nigerian security forces from trying to rescue them.

Seven foreigners, including four Lebanese, were kidnapped by Ansaru militant group in Bauchi State about a month ago.

The group later showed a video clip of bodies, which they claimed were those of the hostages, saying they were killed because of plans by Nigerian and British security forces to rescue them.

However, yesterday, Jona-than said: “We really suspect that some of the hostages probably have died either from health or other related causes or direct killing.

“But we still believe that not all the seven were killed because even the release in the social media did not really show all the seven. So we are still working on it.”

He noted that though Nigeria had been working with other countries whose nationals were also kidnapped on the possibility of their rescue, the safety of the hostages remained a paramount consideration.

In a communique issued at the end of the visit, the two leaders called for the strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries, noting that greater people-to-people contacts would dee-pen mutual understanding and friendly ties between the two countries and its peoples.

Meanwhile, Islamist sect, Boko Haram, yesterday, released a second video about the French family it claimed to be holding hostage, and threatened to increase kidnapping and suicide attacks in Cameroon should the Cameroonian government fail to release its members held there and in Nigeria.

The sect sent the video to journalists in Maiduguri, where the hostages are reportedly being held. The video appears to have been recorded while French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, visited Cameroon and Nigeria.

However, a man, Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, who identified himself as head of the French family kidnapped in Cameroon, has spoken, according to a report by AFP.

In the audio statement, purportedly recorded by Boko Haram and distributed to reporters in the north by intermediaries, Moulin-Fournier spoke in French and English.