Oil workers have flooded a website with tributes to a “gentle” north-east man who was kidnapped by armed militants in Nigeria.
Bruce Strachan, from Cults, Aberdeen, was said to have been on his way home in Port Harcourt when two men in another car forced him to stop last Thursday.
His captors have since demanded 300million naira, the equivalent of £1.6million, for his safe release.
Colleagues and friends of Mr Strachan have since flooded an internet forum with tributes to the father-of-one.
One posted: “Bruce is a good friend and one of the best guys around – good, honest and hard working. God be with you and you family at this time.
“Nice to see that everyone who knows Bruce is of the same opinion – he is one of the best.”
Another wrote: “My thoughts are with my Scottish brother and his family, I’m sure the kidnappers realise they have taken a kind, gentle man and are now keeping him from his family – I pray they see sense and release him soon.”
A friend of Mr Strachan added: “He’s a nice quiet family man just trying to have a normal life and was very unlucky to be caught in this situation.
“I too hope he is OK and released unharmed to his family as soon as possible.”
Mr Strachan works for Aberdeen-based Global Lifting Services, which has an office at the Bridge of Don.
The company has said the firm’s Nigerian arm is dealing with the situation and it is not known if it will pay the ransom.
Mr Strachan has a flat at Cults but is believed to be living in Nigeria with his Nigerian wife, Susan, and their baby son.
A neighbour at Cults said Mr Strachan had returned to Aberdeen in the summer and said he felt safe in the Nigerian oil hub.
The Foreign Office said last night it was liaising with Nigerian authorities, who were leading the investigation into the matter, but UK officials were keeping close contact with them.
Nigerian militants are also holding two other Britons and are refusing to release them in a protest against Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s pledge to help the trouble-torn country fight terrorism.
They were taken when a supply vessel, the HD Blue Ocean, was attacked by unidentified gunmen on September 9 at the entrance of the Sambreiro river in the hostile Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks which is home to Nigeria’s oil industry.
