Abducted Nigerian oil worker killed after paying ransom: police

ABUJA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police on Wednesday confirmed that seven kidnapping suspects have been arrested for allegedly killing a local oil worker in Nigeria after he had paid a 10 million naira (27,778 U.S. dollars) ransom to them.

The police said the 64-year-old victim identified as Ubani Onyema, a production manager in the local Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited, was kidnapped on Oct. 16 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub and capital of Rivers State in the south of the country.

Soon after Onyema's abduction, a ransom call was made to the hostage's company and the amount that was agreed upon was paid but the abductors still kept the victim and later killed him, according to Abba Kyari, a police inspector investigating the abduction and killing.

The police inspector said the suspects had confessed to committing the crime and that the victim died as a result of gunshot wounds during the abduction.

Nigeria's police chief Ibrahim Idris on Monday said the security agency was working hard to curtail the activities of kidnappers troubling the country, saying high-profile kidnappings have been reduced to a low level due to effective policing. Enditem