Kidnapped German: Negotiations continue, as 10-year excavation is halted
Archaeologists working at the site of a research into the historical Nok civilisation at Jenjela village in Kagarko local government of Kaduna State have abandoned the site since Wednesday when Prof. Peter Breunij and his associate, Johannes Buringer, both Germans were abducted.
The police and other security agencies have commenced a search-and-rescue operation. The kidnappers had on Thursday made a demand of N30 million each on the two German nationals.
A source who is part of the team working at the site said the kidnappers made yet another call to demand for the ransom, but he declined to disclose the response of the team.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Kaduna State, ASP Usman Aliyu, confirmed that the security agencies are on the case.
The other researcher, who is part the Ahmadu Bello University team said Nigeria risks the chance of losing valuable data on the ancient civilisation due to the abduction of the professor and his aide.
Jenjela has been the site of an excavation for the relics on the historical Nok culture by a team of academics from the University of Frankfurt, Germany, the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, and the National Commission for Museum and Monuments since 2006.The project according to experts was to establish the extent of the Nok culture and to determine the era in which the civilization existed before it vanished.
Since the project began around the Kwoi area of Jaba local government of Kaduna State, a combined team of experts have been o the site and have been able to establish through polls and other scientific research the depth of the Nok civilization and were able to make headway late last year when they established that the culture dates back to 800 BC rather than 500 BC that it was widely believed to have existed.
“Immediately the incident happened all the researchers abandoned work and fled,” he said, adding that the incident will affect the progress made.
learnt that this is not the first time the professor and his team would be exposed to threats while working on the site. Around 2010, there was a red alert sent to the professor and his team by the German Embassy but the professor due to his passion for concluding the work did not pause.
The source said the professor was also cautioned at the height of the Boko Haram crisis and at another time when cases of kidnappings soared along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.