Nigerian Anglican archbishop kidnapped: police

Nigeria's second-highest ranking Anglican archbishop was kidnapped at the weekend outside the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, a police spokeswoman said.

"Archbishop Ignatius Kattey was kidnapped along with his wife around Eleme (outside Port Harcourt) at about 10:45 pm (2345 SA time) on Friday," spokeswoman Angela Agabe told AFP.

"His wife was later abandoned in the bush by their abductors."

A national spokesman of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria, Foluso Taiwo, confirmed the abduction to AFP, but said the circumstances surrounding the incident were sketchy.

Kattey is the dean of archbishops of the Anglican communion in Nigeria, ranking him second to the primate of the Anglican Church in the country, said Taiwo.

The cleric is archbishop of the Niger Delta province, he added.

Kidnapping for ransom occurs regularly in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta region, though authorities rarely admit to making payments.

The victims are often released unharmed after the payment of a ransom.

In the north of the country however, Islamist extremists have killed a number of their hostages.