Lebanese Businessman Freed by Abductors in Nigeria

A Lebanese businessman who was kidnapped in southern Nigeria's oil-producing Edo State has been released, the director-general of the foreign ministry Haitham Jumaa announced on Friday.

Jumaa said Lebanon’s Charge d’Affaires Shawqi Abu Nassar informed him that Elias Sarkis was set free by his unidentified kidnappers.

Sarkis contacted Abu Nassar and informed him he was in good health, Jumaa said.

The Nigerian police are investigating the kidnapping after it was revealed that it was carried out for family reasons, the director-general said.

Edo State police spokesman Etim Bassey said Thursday that Sarkis was abducted two days earlier in Auchi by some gunmen who scaled the fence of his house and took him away.

Scores of ransom kidnappings have been carried out in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region in recent months.