An Italian citizen was among the three foreign employees of the
Italian Oil contractor Saipem who were kidnapped on Thursday in the
southern Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt, the Italian Foreign
Ministry said on Thursday.
The three oil workers were kidnapped from a car under police
escort in the largest city of the Niger Delta, where a US oil
executive was shot dead by a gunman on a motorcycle the previous
day.
Police said they had captured one of the suspected kidnappers,
but they had not yet disclosed his identity.
The incident had no connection with the militants that had
carried out a series of attacks on oil firms and facilities in the
region since January, according to a spokesman for the
military.
Port Harcourt, where major offices of several multinational
firms are located, handles the entire oil output of the west
African country.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2006)
