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Unknown gunmen in eastern Nigeria Sunday kidnapped three journalists and demanded a ransom of 250 million naira (1.66 million dollars) to secure their release, their colleagues and police said.

Abdulwahab Oba, chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Lagos, Sylva Okereke, the union's assistant secretary and Adolphus Okonkwo, a regional secretary of the union, were kidnapped at gunpoint, according to foreign media reports.

"They were travelling back in an NUJ official vehicle. They were abducted around Aba (in Abia State) today as they were returning from a national executive meeting of the union in Uyo," the capital of nearby Akwa Ibom State, she said.

Kidnapping for ransom is common in Abia and Akwa Ibom, two neighbouring states in the volatile but oil-rich Niger Delta.