No Pinoy seized from Nigerian firm

MANILA, Philippines - The Lebanese employer of kidnapped foreign workers in Nigeria has informed the Philippine embassy in Abuja that there was no Filipino among those abducted by gunmen who attacked a campsite of a construction company in rural northern Nigeria, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

“The Human Resource Officer of Setraco, the Lebanese employer of the kidnapped foreign workers, informed the Philippine embassy in Abuja, Nigeria that no Filipino was kidnapped from their site in the town of Jama’are in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi, contrary to the report of some news organizations,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said.

Nigerian authorities earlier said the gunmen attacked the camp located in Bauchi, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy, Lebanon and the Philippines, in the biggest kidnapping yet in a region under siege by Islamic extremists.

Reports said the gunmen first attacked a local prison and burned two police trucks.