The Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the most active Nigerian militant group in oil-rich Niger Delta, said the Lebanese worker seized on Monday had been rescued by the group on Wednesday.
MEND said in a statement via e-mail that its members at 17:00 local time (1600 GMT) conducted a successful rescue of Melad Nasari, the Lebanese hostage, from deep inside the bush where he was confined by his abductors.
According to the statement, another hostage, Patrick Akorodu, a manager with Zenith Bank Omoku branch in Rivers state who identified himself as a victim of the criminal gang that abducted the Lebanese national, has also been released by the MEND operation.
"Both men are in the safe custody of our men and are now en route to the drop off zone where they will be handed to contacts from the state security service," said the statement.
The Lebanese man was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on Monday morning in Port Harcourt, the capital city and oil center of Nigeria's southeastern Rivers State.
According to local media reports, the man was seized at about 11:00 a.m. (2200 GMT) local time when he was working on a road project outside the oil city.
The Lebanese, employee of a large construction company whose name is withheld for security reasons, was kidnapped on his way to the neighboring Bayelsa State, also belong to oil-rich Niger Delta, security sources further disclosed.
Kidnappings are common in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta region, in which militants and criminals take hostages either for particular political reason or simply for ransom.
Since the beginning of 2006, more than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped by a mixture of militant operations and criminal activities, most of who were released unharmed.
But the militancy and criminal activities have crippled Nigeria's oil production, which has dropped by 25 percent compared with its peak production of 2.6 million barrels per day, as well, people's normal life and daily business have also been stalled to some extend since then.
Source:Xinhua
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