GUNMEN have kidnapped the younger brother of Nigerian and Everton footballer Joseph Yobo, police said yesterday.
Norum Yobo was seized just before dawn as he was returning from a party to his Nigerian home. No group has claimed responsibility and no ransom demand has been made, a Rivers State police spokeswoman said.
His brother Joseph, 27, played for Ever
ton 30 times in the English Premier League last season and is a regular fixture in the heart of the Nigerian defence.
Kidnappings have become common in the West African country's oil-producing Niger river delta region, where militants are agitating for more of the petroleum funds to be spent on developing the impoverished area.
Attacks on oil industry infrastructure in the past two years have slashed Nigeria's oil output by almost a quarter, contributing to the surge in worldwide crude prices to historic highs.
Kidnappings have mostly ended peacefully after ransoms have been paid, but deaths and injuries have occurred when the security forces battle the Nigerian crime gangs.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer and is routinely ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
In 2005-6, the security situation in the Warri area, in the west of the region, became so bad that production was halted completely for a year.
Last year, eight foreigners were killed and 172 taken hostage. Of these, 13 were British, including three-year-old Margaret Hill, who was released unharmed after four days.
Gordon Gray, from Crieff in Perthshire, was released in April 2007 following an abduction at the hands of heavily armed rebels in the Niger delta.
He was kidnapped while working as the installation manager on the Bulford Dolphin drilling rig, 40 miles offshore, when a group of heavily armed militants stormed the rig.
After four days held hostage, his release was finally secured and he flew out of Nigeria for a reunion with his wife Christine and three children.
The full article contains 327 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
