An unknown caller demanded a 50 mln naira (around 384,600 usd) ransom for the release of a Lebanese worker abducted the day before by gunmen near Nigeria’s oil city of Port Harcourt, a senior company official said.
“This afternoon, an unidentified caller phoned to demand 50 million naira to secure the release of our worker. He blocked his phone number and switched off the phone immediately after he made the demand,” the official of the Homan Engineering Company, employers of the abducted worker, told AFP.
“There is no way we can get in touch with the caller since he coded his telephone number,” said the official who asked for anonymity.
“We still do not have any information about the whereabouts of the Lebanese worker. We have sent people around to locate where he is. We are also in touch with government officials in an effort to secure his release,” he said.
He did not say if the unidentified call had been reported to the police.
The abduction of the Lebanese construction worker, yet to be identified, brings to six the total number of foreign workers currently being held by gunmen in southern oil-rich but volatile Niger Delta region.
The others still being held are two Germans, a Briton, an Irishman and an American.