Gunmen kidnap American in Nigeria's delta region

Reuters

20 January 2012

Gunmen kidnap American in Nigeria's delta region

PORT HARCOURT (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped an American working for Marubeni Corp in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region on Friday, killing his driver and demanding a 50 million naira ($310,300) ransom, a security source said.

The U.S. embassy confirmed that one of its citizens had been abducted.

"A foreign national was kidnapped this morning in Warri by gunmen who trailed him from Sapele," Charles Muka, spokesman for the Delta Police Command, told Reuters.

"They killed his police escort and forcefully took him away from the car. He was going to the bank when the attack occurred," he said.

A security source, who could not be named, said that the hostage was an American working for Japanese conglomerate Marubeni, but gave no further details.