Lagos (AFP) - The mother of Nigeria's under-23 football team coach abducted in the country's oil-rich south around two weeks ago has been released, police said on Sunday.
Samson Siasia, who is trying to secure the Nigerian side's qualification for next year's Olympics, last week made an appeal for the release of his 72-year-old mother Ogere, abducted in southern Bayelsa state, by three men on a motorbike, on November 16.
State police spokesman Anisim Butswat said in a statement sent to AFP that she was "abandoned by her abductors" in the early hours of Saturday morning following a "hot pursuit by the anti-kidnapping unit of the police".
He claimed that no ransom was paid before she was set free.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in Nigeria's south. Targets are often family members of prominent people or foreigners and victims are usually released unharmed once money changes hands.
The police have intensified efforts to arrest Ogere Siasia's abductors, Butswat said.
The woman, who was abducted in the village of Odoni by three men on a motorbike, was in good health when she was released, and has returned to her family, he said.
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