Irish oil worker ‘kidnapped in Nigerian city of Warri’

The Department of Foreign Affairs is investigating reports that an Irish oil worker has been abducted in the Nigerian port city of Warri.

International news agency reports, quoting a Nigerian military officer, said the Irishman was kidnapped along with a Briton at a pub in the Ogunu area yesterday.

However, a police spokesman said the pair were a Briton and an American, while the oil company Shell said a Venezuelan had been snatched along with the Briton before being released some time later.

The two kidnapped men are believed to be employees of the Pan Ocean Oil Corporation.

The Nigerian military said it had captured the kidnappers, who apparently abducted the men due to a dispute over jobs at the company.

However, there was also suggestions that they were members of a separatist militant group operating in the area that had threatened to target British oil workers.

The military said the kidnappers had revealed the village where the pair were being held and soldiers had been sent to the area in an effort to find the pair.