Abuja, Oct. 30: An Indian headmistress of a school run by an oil company, who was kidnapped in Nigeria’s volatile oil rich region, has been freed after 13 days of captivity.
Police commissioner for Akwa Ibom state, Mr Walter Rugbere told the media that the abducted woman, Lakshmi Tombush was discovered near the subsidiary office of the oil company on Thursday at Eket, a town in the state.
Mr Rugbere said he did not know if any ransom was paid for the release but added that another kidnapped woman who is the wife of a former governor of Ogun State was also released.
Ms Tombush, the headmistress of the offshore exploration Exxon Mobil corporation, Pegasus Schools was kidnapped on October 14 from her car and two people died in the process.
Foreign workers in the Delta region have faced series of kidnappings that come with demand for large ransom by the abductors.
Several Indians have been kidnapped in the past with one of them being a tanker crew worker Banjit Singh Dhindsa who works for Sichem Peace, an oil tanker by members of the major militia group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
MEND claimed responsibility for the bombing of the oil rich African country’s capital city of Abuja which left 14 dead on the commemoration of the country’s 50th independence anniversary on October 1.
The ship hijacked by the group was owned by Norway-based Eitzen Maritime Services ASA and was later released. The crews were also set free after some days.