Abducted Chinese workers released in Nigeria

Kidnappers have released three employees of a Chinese construction firm in Nigeria, China's foreign ministry said on Saturday, two days after they were abducted following a dispute over wages and working conditions.

The brief statement on the foreign ministry website said the three Chinese men were safe but did not give further details of the release.

A driver for China Civil Engineering Construction Corp (CCECC) was suspected of acting in collaboration with other Nigerian employees of the firm when he abducted the men, including the company's finance manager, on Thursday, Nigerian officials said.

They were returning to the firm's residential compound from a site near the remote southeastern state capital Calabar.

A Cross River state spokesman, Patrick Ugbe, had earlier told reporters that Nigerian staff of CCEC had given a protest letter to Governor Liyel Imoke on Tuesday, when he visited a site where the company is building a bridge, complaining about poor wages and welfare.

There are widespread complaints in Africa's top oil producer that Asian companies pay low salaries and treat local workers like slaves. The firms deny the allegations. - Reuters