LAGOS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Suspected ransom seekers have kidnapped a Nigerian employee of French oil and gas firm Total <TOTF.PA> in the lawless oil-producing Niger Delta, the company said on Thursday. A company spokesman said the worker was returning from a church service when he was abducted by unknown gunmen on Tuesday night in Port Harcourt, the delta's main city and capital of Rivers state. It was the latest in a series of kidnappings in the anarchic Niger Delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry which exports about 2.4 million barrels per day. "We still don't know who the kidnappers are and we don't want to speculate," a company spokesman said. The incident happened hours after gunmen abducted a Pakistani worker at a road construction site run by Italian firm Gitto near Bodo community in the Ogoni area of Rivers state. The elderly mother of a senior legislator in neighbouring Bayelsa state was kidnapped by unknown gunmen on July 25, apparently for ransom. She is still being held by the group. At least 12 foreigners are being held hostage by armed groups in the Niger Delta, where crime and militancy have surged since early 2006.
