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Kidnappers have released the 75-year-old mother of a state legislator abducted last month in Nigeria's restive oil producing region in the south, a senior police officer said Wednesday.
Kidnappers have released the 75-year-old mother of a state legislator abducted last month in Nigeria's restive oil producing region in the south, a senior police officer said Wednesday.
"The woman has been released. She is hale and hearty and no ransom was paid for her freedom," Bayelsa State police commissioner Julian Okpaleke told AFP.
The woman was abducted by unknown gunmen on August 14 from her home in Brass in southern Bayelsa and taken to an unknown location.
The motive for the kidnapping of Laura Canus, the mother of Amalayon Yousuo, was not clear, but it came at the wake of a series of abductions of family members of prominent politicians in the volatile Niger Delta.
More than 200 foreigners, mostly in the oil industry, have been kidnapped since January 2006 by militants and criminal gangs, cutting Nigeria's daily output of 2.6 million barrels at the peak of this activity by 25 percent.
Most of the hostages were released after days or even weeks, apparently after ransom money was paid, but government officials and oil firms have not publicly admitted to making such payments.