The mother of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (pic) has been kidnapped officials say. Source: AAP
NIGERIAN police on Monday sought to free the elderly mother of the country's finance minister, an ex-World Bank managing director seeking to clean up graft, after her abduction in the country's south.
Sunday's shocking kidnapping put renewed focus on insecurity in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, though the motive for the crime remained unclear and police declined to say if a ransom had been demanded.
"We might not have been able to establish motive, but it is a clear case of kidnap," police spokesman Frank Mba told AFP. "The police have already launched a massive manhunt for the perpetrators of those crimes."
He declined to provide details, but a statement from the spokesman for Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the abduction occurred Sunday at her mother's home in Delta state in the country's south, where ransom kidnappings occur regularly.
Local media reported that a gang of gunmen went to the house - locally called a "palace" due to her husband's position as a traditional ruler in the area - in broad daylight in the afternoon.
When the 82-year-old Kamene Okonjo, a professor, went outside to offer drinks to labourers carrying out work around the front gate, the gunmen emerged from hiding and seized her.
Some of the reports said one of the suspects went inside to steal her handbag and that a policeman usually on duty was absent, while the victim's husband had travelled.
"At this point, it is difficult to say whether those behind this action are the same people who have made threats against the coordinating minister in the recent past or other elements with hostile motives," the finance ministry statement said Sunday.
"No possibility can be ruled out at this point."
It added that "this is obviously a very difficult time for the entire Okonjo family. But the family is hopeful of a positive outcome as it fervently prays for the quick and safe return of the matriarch."
Kidnappings for ransom have occurred frequently in Nigeria's southern oil-producing Niger Delta region, but rarely with such prominent victims.
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