South Africa: Officials remain mum over ransom payments

South African officials would not say on Tuesday whether ransom money was paid in order to free captured SuperSport sound engineer Nick Greyling from his Nigerian captors.

Greyling was released on Monday night after being kidnapped near the Oweri Airport in the west African country a week earlier.

Two Nigerian colleagues were taken hostage with him but one of the men managed to escape.

Nick Greyling’s employers Multichoice Africa said they are extremely thankful that the SuperSport sound engineer is now safe.

“We are incredibly relieved that he has been safely released and that he is on his way home,” said head of corporate affairs Karoline Creecy.

Multichoice, the Department of International Relations and Greyling’s family would not speak about whether ransom money was paid over.

“That’s absolute speculation at the moment. We worked with the Nigerian authorities and he was released by the Nigerian police,” Creecy said.

Reports suggested that it cost US$ 100 000 to free the South African.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)

-March 9, 2010 by Mandy Wiener

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Source:  www.ewn.co.za/articleprog.aspx   (accessed on 09.03.10)