A 71-year-old Seattle missionary abducted last month from a school in Nigeria has been released and is safe, the Free Methodist Church USA said Friday. In a statement on the church website, Bishop David Kendall said the Reverend Phyllis Sortor was released Friday evening, Nigeria time, 'into the care of authorities and Free Methodist Church leaders'. Armed men abducted her on February 23 from the Hope Academy compound in Emiworo, Kogi state. Scroll down for video . Phyllis Sortor, 71, was abducted on February 23 from a Christian school in Nigeria. She was released on Friday and is safe . Masked gunman raided a Christian school and fired sporadically to scare people away before taking Sortor hostage . 'We are deeply grateful to all who prayed for Phyllis' safe return and praise God the family representative was able to secure her release,' Kendall said in his statement. He provided no details about how the release was arranged. 'As a matter of sound policy, and to help protect the many, many people who helped secure Phyllis' freedom, we will have no comment concerning the efforts that were undertaken to secure her release,' the bishop said. Kogi State police said shortly after the abduction that the men who took Sortor had demanded a ransom of nearly $300,000. Police said they were collaborating with security forces to secure her return. Friends described Sortor as courageous, tenacious and passionate about helping the people of Nigeria and said she was aware of the dangers. Sortor has been working as a missionary  for ten years. Her friends say she was passionate about helping people in Nigeria and aware of the dangers of working there . She had spent years living in Africa, including Mozambique - where she spent much of her childhood - later working in Rwanda and, since 2005, Nigeria, Kendall said . Her work in Kogi was focused primarily on educational development and conflict resolution between nomadic herdsmen and farming communities who frequently clash in central Nigeria's Middle Belt region, the church statement further said. Foreign nationals have often been kidnapped in Nigeria by local gangs who typically release hostages following a ransom payment. Such abductions are especially common in the southern, oil-producing Niger Delta, where expatriates working with large oil companies have been a frequent target. A number of foreigners have also been kidnapped in the north of the country, but those attacks claimed by Boko Haram or the associated Islamist group Ansaru are considered a different phenomenon, and not necessarily motivated by a desire for ransom. Boko Haram has been blamed for previous attacks in Kogi, including two raids targeting the same prison in 2012 and 2014. Nigeria's Islamists groups have in the past publicly claimed the abduction of expatriates and the lack of such a claim following Sortor's kidnapping led many to believe that Boko Haram and its affiliates were not involved.
Masked gunman raided a Christian school and fired sporadically to scare people away before taking Phyllis Sortor hostage on February 23 . Free Methodist Church USA announced she was released on Friday . Gunmen previously demanded $300,000 for the reverend's release . Sorter has been working as a missionary for the past ten years .