Filipino hostage freed in Nigeria oil delta

ABUJA, Mar 9 (Reuters) A Filipino oil contractor abducted on February 6 in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta has been freed and handed over to his employers, police said today.

Gunmen had seized the man on the road to the oil city of Port Harcourt, killing at least one of the Nigerian policemen who were escorting him. He was freed yesterday.

Kidnappings for ransom are frequent in the delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry. A Lebanese hostage was freed on Saturday for a ransom of 117,000 dollars.

In Manila, authorities said a Filipina believed to have been abducted on February 7 had in fact left Nigeria and was in her home country.

Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos told Reuters that the woman, reported to have been abducted in Port Harcourt, had in fact boarded a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt that day.

Conejos said the woman had then travelled on to Manila on February 10. He said this information was based on flight manifestos and immigration records.

The woman is married to an Iranian national who owns a construction company in Port Harcourt, where they had lived for 17 years.

Another six expatriates are still missing after being abducted in the delta. Most kidnappings are for money although some armed groups have also seized foreigners to press political demands.

Two Italian oil workers kidnapped on December 7 are still in captivity as are one Frenchman, two Croats and one Montegrin abducted in two separate incidents in February.

A wave of militant attacks on oil facilities a year ago forced the closure of a fifth of Nigeria's oil production.

Output has yet to recover.

Since then, raids on oil facilities, kidnappings, gun battles between militants and security forces, and violent armed robberies have multiplied. Thousands of foreign workers and their relatives have left the delta.

REUTERS DKA HS1501