Nigeria releases foreign 'spies'

Dr Judith Burdin Asuni has dual US-Nigerian citizenship

Nigeria has dropped spying charges against a Nigerian-American woman, Judith Burdin Asuni, her Nigerian colleague and two German film-makers.

Mrs Asuni - a Nigerian resident for some 30 years - and her colleague were arrested for allegedly endangering national security.

They had helped the two Germans obtain video footage of oil installations in the restive Niger Delta region.

The attorney general said the charges were dropped in the public interest.

Mrs Asuni has worked in conflict resolution in the Niger Delta for many years and runs a high-profile non-governmental organisation called Academic Associates Peace Work.

It was alleged she and a colleague had helped the two Germans, Florian Alexander Opitz and Andy Lehmann, film masked youths from the Ijaw community in Delta State, without clearance.

The Nigerian government has become increasingly sensitive to foreigners filming and taking photographs in the Niger Delta given the violent campaign by Delta militants for a larger share of oil revenues.