Ali Monguno released





A former Nigerian oil minister who was kidnapped at the weekend by gunmen in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, a stronghold of Islamist group Boko Haram, was released on Monday, police said.

"I can confirm that Shettima Ali Monguno has been released today by his abductors," Borno State police chief Abdullahi Yuguda told AFP.

A security source who requested anonymity said the kidnappers were paid 50 million naira ($318,000, 242,766 euros), but the police chief declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the release.

The ex-minister's son, Abubakar Ali Monguno, had told AFP that the kidnappers demanded a ransom hours after the Friday abduction outside a mosque in Maiduguri.

No group has claimed the abduction, but analysts have said that Boko Haram has increasingly turned to ransom payments to finance its insurgency, notably by kidnapping wealthy individuals around Maiduguri.




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