Kidnapped foreigners released in Niger Delta

LAGOS (AFP) - Gunmen on Wednesday released five foreigners, a week after they were seized from an Anglo-Dutch Shell oil rig in southern Nigeria, police and government sources said.

"The men were released this afternoon, and they have been taken to the government House in Yenagoa", Inyebom Inidong, Bayelsa police spokesman, told AFP.

An AFP correspondent at the scene confirmed that the hostages, two New Zealanders, one Australian, one Lebanese and one Venezuelan, were in audience with state governor Timipre Silva.

The foreigners, all employees of Lone Star Drilling company, were seized last Wednesday while drilling a well for Shell in the Soku region of the Rivers state.

They were named as New Zealanders Bruce Klenner and Brent Goddard, Australian Jason Lane, Lebanese George Saliba and Venezuelan Andres Gamboa.

The men declined to speak to the press about their experience, but they all told the Bayelsa governor, Timipre Silva in a brief audience that they were going back to their countries immediately.

The release of the five foreigners follows that of two Nigerian workers of Shell who were set free by gunmen who seized them at the oil giant's facility in Buguma, Rivers state.

The Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's oil wealth, has been at the centre of a long confrontation between the government and militants who claim to be fighting for a larger share of oil resources for locals, as well as a plethora of armed gangs out to make ransom money.

Some 200 foreigners, mostly oil workers, have been kidnapped in the region since the beginning of 2006.