An Irish oil worker and his British colleague endured almost 24 hours at the hands of gunmen in the mangrove swamps of the Niger delta before being freed by Nigerian police yesterday.
The two men were seized by gunmen while in a bar in the town of Warri on Wednesday evening. A spokeswoman for Pan Ocean Oil Corporation in Nigeria named them as Michael Coe from Ireland and Briton Paul Alford.
Mr Alford later said: "They came in, all guns blazing, into the bar and told everyone to get on the floor. They took us away on a bus, then we got on to a boat and they took us to a house in the swamp."
They were guarded there by a man and a woman armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
"It was just a financial thing," Mr Alford added. "They wanted money."
Dozens of western oil workers are kidnapped for ransom each year in a volatile region where millions live in abject poverty alongside an industry that yields billions of dollars for international companies. Local communities have long campaigned for a greater share of revenues. Sabotage of oil installations and pipelines is commonplace.
Police sources said the kidnappers demanded $385,000, but police and Nigerian soldiers found them after arresting members of the kidnap gang in a gunfight.
Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said: "The police were alerted and the kidnappers were pursued. There was an exchange of fire and in the process one of the kidnappers was hit. His body was dropped along the road. The kidnappers fled with the expatriates. The military was alerted and one of them was arrested."
Eight more of the gang were arrested in a second operation. The kidnappers then supplied information which led police through the delta creeks to their hideaway in the village of Andalajkak where the captives were found. A joint force of Nigerian soldiers and police were able to release them unharmed.
Brig Gen Elias Zamani, the commander of a military taskforce deployed to protect the oil industry in the delta, said the kidnappers appeared to be concerned with seeking a ransom rather than furthering a political cause.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed that an Irish national was freed yesterday. Consular staff were working with British colleagues and Nigerian officials to find out who was behind the kidnapping, he added.