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Two Canadians and two Americans being held hostage in Nigeria are together and in “good spirits,” a state police official said Thursday, confirming that their captors had issued a ransom demand.

Agyole Abbeh, the commissioner of police in the state of Kaduna, where the ambush occurred, told the National Post by phone that police were working with the Nigerian army, security specialists, the hostages’ respective governments, and their employers to secure their release.

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He said he believed the hostages were being held in the general region where the ambush took place Tuesday evening along a highway that connects the town of Kafanchan with the capital, Abuja.

Abbeh said he was confident the quartet would eventually be let go, characterizing their captors as “armed bandits” who “just want money.” He said they are not believed to be affiliated with the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.