A Frenchman kidnapped in Nigeria’s southern oil capital Port Harcourt more than a month ago was released early Friday, an industry source said, after the freeing of two Italians 24 hours earlier.
Gerard Laporal, a logistics expert aged around 60, was the last foreigner remaining in captivity in the Niger Delta region.
Married to a Nigerian woman, he was working under local contract for French oil group Total at the time of his abduction February 8.
The conditions of his release were not immediately known.
Laporal was picked up by armed men as he was returning home late at night, alone in his car, which was found a few hundred metres (yards) from his home a few days later.
Contact was made with the kidnappers a week after he was seized.
Total made no statement during his detention but was “working very hard for his release,” an official of the multinational oil giant told AFP a few days ago.
It was the first time a Frenchman had been seized in the oil-rich south of Nigeria.