Kidnapped officials released

KANO (AFP) - The finance minister for Nigeria’s Zamfara state, who was kidnapped by gunmen in an ambush that killed his deputy, has been released along with one of his aides, a regional spokesman said on Wednesday.

The government “expressed happiness over the release of the state’s Director of Budget... and one other person who were kidnapped at gunpoint,” the Zamfara state spokesman Yusuf Idris said in a statement.