LAGOS, July 6, 2008 (AFP) - The brother of Everton football player Joseph Yobo was kidnapped Saturday by armed men in Port Harcourt, the capital of Nigeria's southern oil-producing region, police said Sunday.

Norum Yobo, the younger brother of the English Premier League player, was kidnapped as he returned to a hotel after a night out with several friends.

Yobo was forced out of the car and taken by his abductors to an unknown location.

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnap and there has been no contact between the family and the abductors, police said.

The restive Niger Delta region has seen a spate of abductions of expatriates in recent years. But with foreign oil workers now receiving greater protection, militants and criminal gangs in the region have been turning more and more to local politicians and their families, mostly to obtain ransom payments.