Kidnappers of Italian, Briton demanded $6.5m – Report

The plans to free two Western hostages were well underway when they were killed during a  failed rescue bid in Nigeria, a spokesman for the kidnappers told the Mauritanian  news agency ANI.

According to AFP, the spokesman for a splinter group of Boko Haram claimed his group was negotiating the release of the British and Italian hostages and had reached an agreement with their families that excluded government involvement.

However, a senior government source in London on Sunday denied there was any such plan, saying the rescue operation had been the best option.

“The kidnappers had established contact with the family of the British hostage and had begun negotiations asking for a five million euro ($6.5 million) ransom and the freedom of certain prisoners,” the spokesman said Saturday.

The online news agency ANI, in December released a video in which gunmen threatened to kill one of the hostages if their demands were not met.

The spokesman added that the family of the Italian hostage had entered the negotiations in which both families had been provided with evidence that the hostages were still alive.

He said the kidnappers had “proved their flexibility: They accepted to add the Italian to the agreement without supplementary demands and gave up their demand that detained Islamists in the region be freed”.

He said the parties had finally agreed on a ransom of 1.2 million euros, and  no government intervention.

“A tiny part of this ransom had already been paid a few days earlier and the rest was to come,” he added.

Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara, 48, and his British colleague Chris McManus, 28, were killed during the failed rescue bid authorised by British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday.

PUNCH NEWSPAPER