Nigeria police search for Lecce player Obodo By JON GAMBRELL

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Kidnappers in Nigeria have demanded $187,500 from the family of midfielder Christian Obodo, a player for Italy's Udinese football club abducted in the country's oil-rich southern delta, police said Sunday.
Gunmen seized Obodo on Saturday as he arrived in front of a church outside the city of Warri, one of the major cities in Nigeria's Niger Delta, local police spokesman Charles Muka said. The kidnappers made contact with the international football player's family in Warri shortly afterward, making their ransom demand, Muka said.
"We are on the trail of the kidnappers," Muka said Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation issued a statement Sunday calling on kidnappers to release Obodo, who has played for the national team in the past.
"This is a sad thing. Christian Obodo served this country patriotically and without blame when he played for the senior national team, (the) Super Eagles," federation President Aminu Maigari said. "The only thing we can do is to appeal passionately to the kidnappers to let him go.

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Source: Associated Press