Nigeria minister: Mom's kidnap about fuel payments

(AP) Nigeria's finance minister has said her 83-year-old mother's kidnapping was linked to the country's subsidy payments for gasoline.

Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Monday that her mother told her the kidnappers repeatedly talked to her about her decision not to pay some marketers for importing gasoline.

Okonjo-Iweala declined to take questions from journalists.

Her mother was held for five days by kidnappers before she was released. It is unclear if a ransom was paid.

Nigeria has seen unrest and controversy trail its fuel subsidy program, which lawmakers have said is a multi-billion dollar scam.

Okonjo-Iweala, is a respected economist who became Nigeria's finance minister with extensive powers last year. She was also a possible candidate to head the World Bank before losing the position to U.S. nominee Jim Yong Kim.