Police announced Tuesday that four Chinese rail workers abducted last week in southwest Nigeria had been freed.
The four were kidnapped from a rail construction site in Alaagba village, Ogun state, on Wednesday by unidentified gunmen who also murdered their police escort.
The Chinese were constructing a $2.5 billion, 157-kilometer standard gauge railway between Lagos and Ibadan, which was commissioned two weeks ago by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The four Chinese nationals were released yesterday,” a senior police officer in Ogun state told AFP, without giving details.
He made no mention of a ransom payment.
According to local media, an unknown sum of money was paid for the release.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, the state police spokesperson, was not immediately available for comment.
Chinese companies are investing billions of dollars in Nigeria’s infrastructure projects, which include mines, railroads, airports, and roads.
Kidnapping for ransom was formerly confined in Nigeria’s oil-producing south, but the crime has recently expanded across the nation.
Typically, victims are freed when a ransom is paid, but authorities rarely acknowledge if money is exchanged.
At a mining location in southwest Osun state in April, two Chinese employees were kidnapped and their private security guards were shot. Four days later, they were freed.
