OFW freed by Nigerian militants

A kidnapped Filipino worker in Nigeria has been freed while another reported abduction took a bizarre twist with the supposed victim – a businesswoman married to an Iranian – turning up in Germany and eventually the Philippines.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced yesterday the release of engineer Winston Helera, 52, after more than a month in captivity.

"Today, 30 days later, I am pleased to report to you that Winston Helera was released yesterday (March 8). Winston is now in the clinic of the employer Shell Petroleum Development Corp. for a physical checkup," Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos told a news conference. He said Helera "is well and in good condition."

"All negotiations were done by the Nigerian government. As far as I know, we did not pay any ransom," DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said. Helera will fly back to the Philippines after a security debriefing.

Militants seized Helera while he was on his way to Port Harcourt in a convoy last Feb. 6. His abductors remained unidentified but they were believed to be members of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation will check how a reported kidnap victim, Josiebeth Gregorio Foroozan, turned up in Manila after her supposed abduction.

Foroozan’s husband had reported her supposed abduction to the Nigerian police and the Philippine embassy in Abuja on Feb. 7, Conejos said.

"What happened was not a kidnapping case," Conejos said. "After 30 days of the alleged kidnapping, nobody has come forward to claim the kidnapping or make demand for her release."

Conejos said that based on flight records, the woman boarded a commercial flight from Lagos to Frankfurt on Feb. 6. Bureau of Immigration records showed she disembarked from an international flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Feb. 10, he added.

Last month gunmen freed 24 other Filipino oil workers taken hostage in January aboard a vessel in southern Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State.

Following the kidnappings, President Arroyo ordered a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Nigeria.

Nigeria is one of the biggest employers of Filipino workers in Africa, with some 3,900 Filipinos employed there at the end of 2006.

The past year has seen an upsurge in violence by separatist groups seeking a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth for the inhabitants of the Niger Delta.

Scores of foreigners, mostly in the oil sector, have been kidnapped and some 37 Nigerian soldiers and dozens of local oil workers, killed.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and derives more than 95 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from the fossil fuel. -with AFP, AP