Former Nigeria national footballer Ubudo escapes from his captors

Former Nigeria midfielder Christian Ubudo announced on Monday that he had managed to escape his captors in the country's oil-rich Delta state.

Obudo was driving in the southern city of Warri on Sunday when he claimed two gunmen forced his car into it.

"They pushed my friend out of the car," said Ubudo, 36, who spent more than a decade in the Italian league with Perugia, Fiorentina and Udinese, in a phone call with Agence France-Presse, adding that a third gunman drove a car behind them.

He added, "I was praying and trying to have a conversation with them and ask them what I did, but they shouted in my face and told me to shut up, and if I make any sound, I will be killed."

Between 2003 and 2008, the international player described how they drove around the city for several hours until the two men asked him to stop the car and went out to talk to their partner and said, "I looked back and felt a little easy and set off."

Police spokesman Onumi Onuakuboya confirmed that Ubudo was briefly kidnapped and released.

"I was not harmed in any way and nothing was taken from me," said Ubudo.

Kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs are common in Africa's most populous country, especially in the oil-producing Delta region.

Obudu was kidnapped in the same area in 2012 and was rescued a day later in a police raid.

His captors had demanded a ransom of about $ 188,000 (149,000 euros).

Obudo was seventeen years old when he moved to Italy in 2001 to play with Perugia.

Then he moved to Fiorentina, Udinese, Turin and Lecce before moving to Dynamo Minsk, Belarus in 2014.

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