Foreign oil workers freed

2006-05-12 19:19

Port Harcourt - Three foreign oil workers taken hostage in Nigeria on Thursday were released early on Friday.

Nigerian police said the three employees of Italian oil contractor Saipem <SPMI.MI> were abducted at gunpoint on Thursday, but were released on harmed the following day.

They believe the gunmen were members of a community where Saipem was working at the time. The community is in dispute with the company over its community programme.

Rivers state police commissioner Samuel Agbetuyi said on Friday: "They have been released. The issues of disagreement must have been resolved."

A Bukuma leader, Mbaka Harmony, told a Nigerian radio station that the community was demanding 300 million naira (about R13m) from the oil company, in compensation for environmental damage caused by Saipem's laying of a pipeline through the area.

In Rome, the Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed the release of the Italian national, Vito Macrina, and the two other men.

- Reuters