Posted by AFP on
A Nigerian politician's son who had been kidnapped seized an assault rifle from his captors, shot one of them dead and escaped, police has said.
NIGERIA - A Nigerian politician's son who had been kidnapped seized an assault rifle from his captors, shot one of them dead and escaped, police has said.
Hamza Danlami, the 25-year-old son of a member of Nigeria's House of Representatives, was seized on Monday by a three-man-gang, Kano police commissioner Ganiyu Dawudu told reporters.
The kidnappers had lured the young man from his home by telling him his father's car had been involved in an accident. They took him captive and demanded a 15 million naira (112,000 dollars) ransom, he said.
"The kidnappers held him hostage, used his cell phone to call his father and asked for ransom, telling the father that he should collect the corpse of his son at a point in the outskirts of the city if he refused to pay," Dawudu said.
"Our men were able to trail the kidnappers but just before they arrived the captive succeeded in grabbing an AK-47 rifle from one of his captors and shot him to death while the other two fled," he said.
Police recovered a car, six army uniforms and the AK-47 Kalashnikov from the scene. The rifle had been reported missing from the army and one of the uniforms bore the name tag of a soldier who was demobilised two years ago.