Gunmen struck again in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on Saturday night, taking away a Russian woman married to a Nigerian.
The woman, whose name was given as Irina, is married to an Akwa Ibom man, Ekpo Umo.
Eyewitnesses said the woman was abducted from her home on Birabi Street in the Government Reservation Area of Port Harcourt, as she was being driven home by her driver.
The gunmen are reported to have waited nearby in an unmarked vehicle, and swooped on the woman just as she wanted to enter her compound.
Irina and her driver were forced by the gunmen into their unmarked car and driven towards the new Airport Link Road, which is close to the Nigerian Air force Base in the state capital.
However, sources said on getting to the road, the militants dropped the driver and went away with the woman, who worked for the Port Harcourt-based Whassan Euorset, an oil servicing and catering firm.
The Police Commissioner, Rivers State Police Command, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, confirmed the seizure of the Russian in a telephone interview with our correspondent.
The kidnap of the woman has heightened tension in the state, as the fate of the 11 hostages taken from a construction plant in Afam in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state, remained unknown.
Although the Joint Task Force said it had established contacts with the kidnappers and that negotiations were on to free the hostages, there was no indication as at Sunday as to when they would be released.
Both the spokesman for the JTF, Maj. Sagir Musa, and the Rivers State Commissioner for Community and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Clapton Ogolo, said in separate interviews with our correspondent that they were working hard to get the foreigners freed.
Musa said, �Already contacts have been established and negotiations are going on to free the workers.�