Nigerian police and troops have freed two foreign workers kidnapped Wednesday night in the southern Nigerian oil city of Warri, police and military authorities said Thursday.

A statement issued by the taskforce in charge of the oil-rich Niger Delta, where the majority of Nigeria's oil is produced, said the two, both of them Britons identified as Paul Alford and Michael Coe, were released the same night of abduction.

Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi also confirmed the release but he identified one of the two as an American.

"The Briton and the American have been rescued. Eight suspects were arrested during the raid in Burutu (region of Warri)," Iwendi told Xinhua from Nigeria's capital Abuja.

Brigadier-General Elias Zamani, head of the taskforce had initially said the man was not American but Irish. The man himself reportedly said after his release he was from Northern Ireland and lied to the kidnappers for reasons of a militant threat issued against Britons earlier this month.

Said Hammed, spokesman of the taskforce said in the military statement the Britons were working with Canadian oil company Pan Ocean and were kidnapped at about 8:30 pm (1930 GMT) Wednesday at a drinking spot in Ogunu region of Warri.

"The kidnappers perpetuated the act with two AK 47 riffles but the swift dispatch of troops to the creeks and the co-operation of same citizens led to the rescue of the expatriate," he said. Pan Ocean however declined to comment.

Iwendi said police were called in immediately after the kidnap and an exchange of gunfire ensued.

Hammed said the gang had only seven members and three of them, including a boat driver and the gang leader, was arrested. Both of them said a member of the gang, who was also a bus driver, was shot dead by mobile policemen that intercepted the gang.

It has to be quick to point out that investigation revealed the "act is an isolated case of criminality perpetuated by the gang for personal aggrandizement to extort money from the expatriates," Hammed noted. Some reports had said the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 50 million naira (about 378,788 US dollars).

"Also the act does not have any ethnic motive or anything to do with the arrest of Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari (a militia leader) or pending issue concerning the executive governor of Bayelsa state in Britain," he added.

The arrest of Asari by Nigerian police and the charge of money laundering against Bayelsa state governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha by British police had sparked threats from their supporters to blow up oil facilities in the Niger Delta. The group of Asari later last week withdrew its threat and said it's waiting for his release by the government.

Nigeria earns billions of oil money every year, but an overwhelming majority of locals in the Niger Delta, where the majority of the country's oil is produced, still live in abject poverty.

They usually demand compensation from foreign oil companies by seizing oil facilities, kidnapping oil workers or posing threat of violence.

Source: Xinhua