The head of the Methodist Church in Nigeria, Samuel Kanu, has been freed after being abducted on Sunday, a church official confirmed to the BBC.

The police said he was travelling with two other priests on a highway in the south-eastern state of Abia when they were kidnapped.

It is unclear how they were freed, but separatist groups frequently carry out abductions in the region.

Soon after the news of the abduction came out, members of the Methodist Church in the country started hourly chain-prayers for the release of Dr Kanu and the other priests.

The Very Rev Nosakhare Nosayaba of Abuja's Methodist Cathedral of Unity had said Samuel Kanu, is a peace-loving Christian leader" whose abduction "came as a shock