An Irish engineer freed last week by the Niger Delta militants said on Sunday there were occasions during the 10-day ordeal when he and other captive oil workers feared for their lives.
Bryan Fogerty, 39, from County Galway in the west of Ireland, was abducted at gunpoint with other foreign oil workers from a bar in Port Harcourt on August 14.
He was released along with five other oil workers on Wednesday.
After arriving home, Fogerty told RTE state radio that there were two periods when he and his colleagues feared their days were numbered.
At one stage, Fogety said there was a fight between the kidnap gang that seized them and a new group that turned up.
He said, �There was a fight that broke out amongst themselves. We couldn�t understand what was going on but it was very very loud, very argumentive.
�Three shots were fired off. Weapons were cocked and we feared then. The situation was basically very unstable and we were quite frightened.�
He said they tried to build up a rapport with the kidnappers but for two days before their release there was no communication between them.
�We knew negotiations had broken down on the Sunday and we were actually quite afraid. We didn�t know what was going on at that time,� he added.
Fogerty had been in Nigeria for less than a day when a man came into the bar with a belt-fed weapon and fired off about 70 shots.
He said, �Unfortunately I was trying to leave before he came in and I was the first one he signalled to get out. Initially I thought it was a robbery. Naturally enough, when someone with a gun tells you to move, you move very quickly.
�I was thrown into a Volkswagen bus and then five other gentlemen joined me later.�
He said they were not ill-treated by their captors but the conditions were very primitive where they were held in the jungle.
He said they suffered a lot of insect bites and he feared he had caught malaria.
�Probably every two days we were able to wash ourselves with a bucket of water and we were more worried we would catch sores or diseases from that,� Fogety added.
He said he did know what the circumstances of his release had been.
At least 40 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped since January in the volatile Niger Delta region, with about 15 abducted in recent weeks.
Security forces have launched an aggressive manhunt for the kidnappers following a directive by President Olusegun Obasanjo to rid the region of separatist fighters seeking local control of the country�s massive oil wealth.