Suspected Irish kidnap victim freed in Nigeria

Nigerian police and soldiers freed two kidnapped expatriate oil workers, one of whom is thought to be Irish, during a rescue operation in the country’s southern oil-rich delta today, a police spokesman said.

Haz Iwendi said eight suspects were arrested during the raid in the Delta state district of Burutu. He said one of the kidnapped men was British, but there were conflicting reports about the nationality of the second man.

“The kingpin was arrested, and during interrogation he told us where they were taken,” Iwendi told The Associated Press in the capital, Abuja.

“A team of police and soldiers went in and they were rescued.”

Earlier, a spokesman for the British High Commission, Graeme Bannatyne, had said he could not confirm reports of yesterday’s kidnappings but said “we are urgently investigating the issue.”

George Timinimi, an adviser to the governor of Nigeria’s Delta state, said two expatriates were kidnapped from a village called Obotebe in Burutu by a group of men demanding unpaid salaries. He said the culprits were employees or former employees of the company the two men worked for.

Timinimi did not know the identities of the expatriates or the company’s name.

Oil industry officials said the two men worked for Pan Ocean and that one of them was British. There were conflicting reports about the second abducted man.

The officials said he was either Venezuelan or Irish, and Iwendi said he was American. In Caracas, Olga Fonseca, director of the office of the Venezuelan Vice Minister for Africa Reinaldo Bolivar, said she had no reports a Venezuelan had been kidnapped.

Nigeria produces about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. For years, local communities have been demanding a greater share of revenues from the oil flowing from their land, and hostage takings occur sporadically.