LAGOS: Unknown gunmen have killed an Egyptian national on a notorious highway near southern Nigeria’s oil hub of Port Harcourt, police said Thursday.
"The man, an Egyptian, was killed on the Aba-Port Harcourt road yesterday. But we still don’t have any detail on the circumstances of his death," Abia State police spokesman Geofrey Ogbonna told AFP.
A security source said on condition of anonymity that the Egyptian believed to be working for a Shell contractor appeared to have been hit by a stray bullet from armed robbers who operate in the area.
Egyptian embassy officials in Nigeria were not immediately available for comment.
The Aba-Port Harcourt highway is notorious for robberies and kidnappings of expatriates, mostly oil workers, by criminal gangs seeking ransom money. Most hostages are released after payment of ransom.
Port Harcourt is located in the restive Niger Delta region, the heart of one of the world’s largest oil industries.
