Five Filipino workers kidnapped from an oil services vessel in southern Nigeria nine days ago have been released unharmed, a military spokesman said on Monday.
The Filipinos were seized on October 4 between the oil hub of Port Harcourt and Bonny in the Niger Delta by about a dozen gunmen. Security sources originally said six had been kidnapped, including the boat's captain and two engineers.
"They have been released," Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the military taskforce in the Niger Delta, said.
He had no further immediate details.
A security source in the region said the five Filipinos were safe and well and had been taken to the Philipinne embassy in the capital Abuja.
Hundreds of foreigners have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, since militants launched a campaign of violence two years ago.
Almost all have been released unharmed. But the insecurity, including the bombing of pipelines and attacks on oil and gas plants, has cut Nigeria's oil production by around a fifth and forced some foreign firms to scale back their operations.
(Reuters)
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