Abductors demand N60m for kidnapped corps member, pregnant woman, others

The abductors of a member of National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), a pregnant woman from Benue State and four others kidnapped around Ochadamu community after Ayangba in Kogi State by gunmen, have demanded N10m per head for the kidnapped victims.

The victims had boarded a Benue Links 14-seater bus from Gboko Local Government Area to travel to Lagos State when they were intercepted by the robbers near Ochadamu Junction in neighbouring Ayangba in Kogi State and robbed of their valuable items.

It was gathered that out of the 13 passengers on board, six were kidnapped and taken to an unknown destination.

The abductors, it was learnt, are demanding the total sum of N60 million as a condition for the release of the six persons.

Narrating the incident to reporters in Makurdi Thursday, the driver of the Benue Links vehicle, Emmanuel Owoicho, said: “On Saturday I was travelling to Lagos. So after Ayangba, the place is called Ochadamu junction. On reaching there around after 4pm, I saw some men coming out from the bush and started shooting at us. I wanted to go ahead but later I realized that if I do that, they will riddle the bus with bullets so I parked. Many others came from the bush and started robbing us. They collected our money, phones, everything we had.

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“Then they asked us to lie on the road but on sighting a trailer on high speed approaching, their leader of the robbers asked us to get up and stay by the roadside. He now asked six persons to follow him, three men and three female into the bush. I called back my passengers and we got to a Naval checkpoint and reported the incident to them.

“After over 30 to 40 minutes of searching, the Naval Officers came back to say they could not find the kidnappers. The next day, I went to the Police Station in Ayingba to formally report the incident and they instructed me to go. I then took the remaining passengers back to Gboko. I left Gboko after 10 am on that Saturday and got to that junction at about 4pm.

“I picked 13 passengers from Gboko on that day and they kidnapped six. They collected the sum of N42, 000 from me.

“The kidnappers are demanding N10 million as ransom from those kidnapped but their families are negotiating between N750,000 and N450,000. There is an orphan girl whose family said they only have N80,000.”