A British man kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria's southern oil region, on September 15, has now been released, the Foreign Office has declared.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “We can confirm that a British man was released on Saturday and is safe and well.
“He was kidnapped on 15 September at Port Harcourt. We are not able to speculate on who might have been behind it,” she added.
It is hardly surprising that those responsible are hard to identify. Recently the oil-rich region has seen a spate of kidnappings, amidst a backdrop of lawlessness and violence, in which more than 200 foreign workers have been abducted in the last 3 years alone.
Encouragingly almost all the kidnapped workers have been released, but rebel action has significantly disrupted oil supplies.
David Melford, a British national with a Nigerian wife, was released by his captors, in the Niger Delta – an area the size of Scotland, at around 03:00 GMT on Saturday.
Mr. Melford, originally from Aberdeen, was a former employee of the Indo Rama petrochemicals firm.
Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state, said that in line with the British government's policy no ransom was paid for his release from captivity.
Criminal gangs in the Delta have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order kidnapping - for ransom - businessmen, local politicians and foreign workers. Abduction has become the equivalent of an alternative currency in the region.
Insecurity in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest exporter of oil, has cut crude output by around a fifth since militants launched their campaign of violence two years ago to press for greater development in the neglected communities of a extremely lucrative region.
The kidnapping of Mr. Melford coincided with action by the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who last month unleashed “war” on foreign workers and companies involved in the Nigerian Oil Industry last month.
MEND have, thus far, caused severe disruption by attacking gas plants, oil installations and pipelines.
Opponents of the terrorist group, who are aren't hard to find, claim that the militants are operating with criminal rackets to just make a trade for themselves in stolen oil.
The foreign office added that: “Nigerian authorities were taking the lead in the investigation and our staff were in touch with them.”