YENAGOA (AFP) – An Italian construction worker kidnapped in Nigeria’s main oil region has been freed after being held for a day and following a ransom demand of more than $700,000, officials said Thursday.

“He was released on the 10th of December,” said police spokesman Eguavoen Emokpae. A secret police official said a more than $700,000 ransom had been demanded for the Italian involved in a road construction project, adding four people had been arrested over the kidnapping.

It was not clear whether any ransom had been paid.