US freelance journalist, Andrew Berends detained last week in Port Harcourt has been released, says a security source in Rivers State.

It would be recalled that the journalist was arrested by security operatives at Nembe waterside in the state capital while filming military deployment to the area.

Army Spokesman in the state, Lieutenant Col Sagir Musa had confirmed the arrest to media men in the state.

According to him, the journalist did not obtain permission from any security quarter in the state before embarking on the assignment, an act he condemned. He said his arrest was a strategy to protect him from any form of security threat.

In another development, Lieutenant Sagir yesterday confirmed an attack on a vessel HD blue around River Sombreiro on Tuesday by some suspected militants. He said the abducted five expatriates and eight Nigerian oil workers.

He also said a similar incident occurred at Okwori, but nobody was taken hostage. He said the militants merely stormed the platform belonging to Addax, a Canadian oil firm and then dispossessed occupants of valuables.

Sagir continued that at press time no group had claimed responsibility for the abduction. And no demand for ransom had also been made.

There were fears at press time that two South Africans could have been among those abducted by the gun men on Tuesday. But this Sagir could not confirm.