By Richard Burdge

A PERTHSHIRE community was yesterday celebrating the end of a local man’s ordeal at the hands of kidnappers in Nigeria.

While details of how the oil worker’s release was negotiated were sketchy, it emerged yesterday that Gordon Gray from Crieff was safe and well and in the hands of the authorities.

He was taken hostage after being kidnapped at gunpoint from a rig off the coast of Nigeria on Saturday when a gang in speedboats overpowered the crew of the rig’s guard ship.

The Foreign Office stepped in to battle for his release and yesterday the news his family had been waiting for was confirmed.

Despite the good news Mr Gray’s wife Christine opted to remain tight-lipped about the ordeal—at least until the couple are reunited.

“Thanks for your call but we will be making no statement until we are all together as a family,” Mrs Gray said from the family home in Ferntower Road.

It is understood Mrs Gray had been able to speak briefly to her husband who reassured her that he was well.

Crieff North councillor Helen McDonald was among those to be delighted by the safe release of the father of one.

“It is wonderful news, I am so relieved for the family,” she said.

“It must have been terrible, a huge burden for the family. I can’t imagine what it would have been like.”

The timescale for Mr Gray’s return to this country was unclear but initial reports were that he was in good health and unscathed by the incident.

Employed by Aberdeen-based rig operator Dolphin Drilling, Mr Gray was working on the Bulford Dolphin rig, off the Bayelsa state in the Niger delta region, around 40 miles offshore.

It was understood that during his captivity Mr Gray was able to make a phone call to reassure his family that he was unharmed.

His employers confirmed he had been released and handed over to the Nigerian government yesterday.

“We are extremely pleased that our colleague is free at last,” a company spokesman said.

The company said it wished to express thanks to those out in Africa for their “unstinting assistance” in bringing the incident to a satisfactory conclusion.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed, “He is in good health and has been taken to the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos.”

It was unknown if a ransom had to be paid to secure his release but nearly 70 foreign workers have been taken since the beginning of the year with most released following cash payments.

The tense and volatile situation in the country has been causing concern for some time now, not least among the unions who represent many of the oil workers in the area.