Freed UK oil worker 'safe'

A kidnapped British oil worker was enjoying his first full day of freedom today after being released from nine months in captivity in Nigeria.

Matthew Maguire was said to be “safe” after his captors let him go yesterday, ending an ordeal which began in September last year when he was seized from a supply vessel off the Nigerian coast.

His release was confirmed last night by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a statement issued by 10 Downing Street.

Mr Maguire and 26 other workers were taken from the oil supply vessel when it was hijacked off the coast near Port Harcourt.

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).

Ship captain Mr Hughes, originally from St Margaret’s Bay, near Dover, Kent, was freed in April and at the start of this month Mend said they hoped to release Mr Maguire shortly, in honour of his 35th birthday.

There have been hundreds of kidnappings in the southern Niger Delta in recent years.