PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) -Gunmen kidnapped the younger brother of a Nigerian soccer star who plays for Everton in England's Premier League.
The unidentified men seized Norum Yobo at gunpoint before dawn Saturday as he was returning from a party, Rivers State police spokeswoman Rita Inoma-Abbey said. No group claimed responsibility and no ransom demand had been made, she added.
Joseph Yobo played for Everton last season and is a regular on Nigeria's national team.
Kidnappings are common in the West African country's oil-producing Niger river delta region. They have mostly ended peacefully after ransom payments, although deaths and injuries have occurred when security forces battle kidnappers.
Militants are agitating for more of the petroleum funds to be spent developing the impoverished region. Attacks on oil industry infrastructure in the past two years have slashed Nigeria's oil output by almost a quarter, helping push worldwide crude prices to historic highs.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer and is routinely ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
