Nigerian kidnappers demand $200,000 for German hostages

KADUNA: Kidnappers are demanding a ransom of 60 million naira ($200,000) for a German archaeologist and his associate abducted this week from a northern Nigerian village, a worker at the excavation site said. Two villagers were shot and killed in the kidnapping, police confirmed Friday.

The worker said he heard a man make the demand in a telephone call Thursday to the site’s supervisor. The caller warned not to involve police or security forces, said the worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Police special forces and a special investigative team for kidnappings already were searching around Jenjela village in Kaduna state, where gunmen on Wednesday abducted Prof. Peter Breunig and his associate Johannes Behringer and walked with them into the bush.

Nigeria’s acting President Yemi Osinbajo summoned the federal police chief for a briefing Thursday on efforts to find the kidnap victims, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported.

Two villagers accompanying the Germans were shot and killed in the kidnapping, police spokesman Aliyu Usman confirmed Friday.

Police were not aware of any ransom demand, Usman added.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in Nigeria, but victims usually are freed unharmed after a ransom is paid.

Breunig, 65, and Behringer, who is in his 20s, are part of a four- person team from Frankfurt’s Goethe University collaborating with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museum and Monuments to recover relics of the Nok culture. The early Iron Age people are considered the earliest ancient civilization of the region that is now Nigeria, famous for their terracotta sculptures.

Recently, the leader of Boko Haram’s main faction, Abubakar Shekau, has admitted killing the group’s purported spokesman over an apparent plot to oust him, he said in an audio recording obtained by AFP.

In the 50-minute tape of a meeting with the inner circle of his militant group, Shekau said he killed “Tasiu” — also known as Abu Zinnira — who appeared in several video messages.

Shekau states the date of the meeting — Dec. 18 — and said it had been called to discuss “those elements grumbling over the killing of Tasiu.”

Shekau has been the most visible face of Boko Haram over the years, claiming attacks and launching rambling, often barely coherent tirades against the government in a series of videos.

But Abu Zinnira has acted on occasion as de facto spokesman and appeared in video recordings, including those about the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the town of Chibok in April 2014.

He was always shown in military camouflage, wearing a turban and with his face covered.

In one video released in August last year, Abu Zinnira warned that the remaining girls still being held would die if troops attempted to rescue them.

He also renewed calls for the release of Boko Haram members in custody.

In the December audio recording, Shekau accused Abu Zinnira of plotting with another senior commander called Baba Ammar to take over leadership of the group.

He accused them of sending fighters to carry out raids without his consent, spreading rumors among his lieutenants that he intended to kill them and portraying him as unfit to lead.

Abu Zinnira and “other elements” had tried to make him out to the rank and file as being “not on the right track,” Shekau added.

Nigeria’s military claims that Boko Haram, which in 2014 held territory across northeast Nigeria, is on the brink of defeat as a result of its counter-insurgency operations since early 2015.

Sporadic attacks and suicide bombings persist but analysts tracking the conflict have been intrigued by the apparent split in the group and how it may develop.