The Police in Rivers State on Sunday confirmed the release of nine workers of Addax Petroleum, who were kidnapped by gunmen at an oil facility off the coast of Nigeria nearly a month ago.

Gunmen in two speedboats had attacked the floating production storage and offloading vessel owned by BW Offshore and contracted to Addax Petroleum, a unit of China’s Sinopec.

The Okwori field, where the oil workers were kidnapped, lies in the Oil Mining Lease 126, South of Port Harcourt.

Following the attack on the facility, the company had temporarily shut its operations and asked other offshore staff to go home for safety.

It could not be ascertained if any ransom was paid before the oil workers were freed.

Confirming their release, the spokesman for the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni, told our correspondent on Sunday that the Nigerian oil workers were freed on Thursday.

Omoni added that a joint security operation had been launched to apprehend those behind the attack.

He said, “Yes, I can confirm that they have been released. They were released on Thursday and have reunited with their families. Efforts are on the arrest the kidnappers. We have increased our presence on the coastal communities and the waterways.”