Militants freed eight foreign hostages, six Russians, one British and one Bulgarian in Nigeria's southeastern oil-rich Niger River Delta, local police said on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Nigeria's southeastern Rivers State.
Felix Ogbaudu, the Commissioner of Police in Rivers told Lagos-based News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the Russians were engineers working at the Aluminum Smelting Company, Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom. They were kidnapped three months ago and were freed on Tuesday evening. They are in a hotel and would soon return to work.
The commissioner, however, said that a Syrian, kidnapped along with the Russians, has not been freed by his abductors.
Meanwhile, a local government spokesman said a British and a Bulgarian hostage were freed by their Kidnappers.
The two foreigners, who were abducted on June 8 during their work, would be handed over to the Nigerian authorities on Wednesday, according to local media reports.
Emma Okah, the state spokesman, was quoted as saying that the two were in good health, though they were looked exhausted for the two-month-long seizure by the gunmen.
According to him, no ransom had been paid for the pair's freedom, and assured that Nigeria would no longer tolerate kidnapping.
He said the governments of all tiers would no longer allow the spreading of the crime, and would go all out to tackle the further attempts of kidnappings in the country.
Since the beginning of 2007, more than 100 foreigners have been abducted in Nigeria's Niger River Delta. The continuous unrest has caused considerable shrink in oil production in the oil center, which produces the mainstream of oil exports of Nigeria.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2007)
