The nine-year-old son of a Nigerian oil worker kidnapped last week by abductors who also shot dead his 11-year-old sister has been released, according to security sources.
Olumide Awolesun was released on Thursday, the sources said, without indicating if ransom money was paid following the kidnapping in the volatile oil city of Port Harcourt.
Unknown gunmen abducted the boy on January 29 and shot dead his sister accompanying him to school.
Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings of local and foreign workers and relatives of prominent politicians in the past two years — often by criminal gangs seeking a ransom, but sometimes also for political ends.
The unrest in Nigeria has cut the country’s crude output by more than one quarter and production currently stands around two million barrels a day against 2.6 million barrels three years ago.