Nigerian kidnappers seek 12 mln dollars for Israeli: source

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

LAGOS (AFP) — A Nigerian armed group that kidnapped an Israeli earlier this week has asked for a ransom of 12 million dollars (8 million euros) for his release, a security source said Friday.

The Israeli was abducted on Tuesday from his house in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub and the capital of southern Rivers state.

The country's most prominent armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which denies any implication in the kidnapping, said Thursday it had located the man.

MEND however withdrew an earlier offer to help obtain the man's release until an Israeli media group apologised for referring to it as a terrorist organisation.

Naming the man as Ehud Avni, MEND said that until the Arutz Sheva issued an apology the...