Boko Haram Terrorists Merge With Bandits in Nigeria That alliance threatens to worsen the violence afflicting this West African nation. “The Greenfield [University] abduction is unique because for the first time we saw a cooperation between some bandits and Boko Haram elements, which confirm that Boko Haram are encroaching into the field,” kidnapping mediator Sheikh Ahmad Gumi told Channels TV on May 16. Gumi, a former captain in the Nigerian army, is the senior cleric of a mosque in the state capital of Kaduna city, a two-hour drive north of the federal capital of Abuja. The abduction of 22 students from Greenfield University on April 17 remains in a state of negotiation; five of the students have been slain and one released amid negotiations with some of the parents; Boko Haram and the bandits are demanding a ransom of approximately $280,000 for the remaining 16 Greenfield students. Meanwhile, Gumi said that Boko Haram terrorists attempted to take over negotiations related to 27 schoolboys abducted on Feb. 17 in Niger State but were rebuffed by the bandit gang.