Abductors of the two students of Kogi State Polytechnic, Itakpe Campus and a non-teaching staff member of the new Confluence University of Science and technology (CUSTECH) have demanded a ransom of N30 million for their release.
A student, Christianah Momojimoh, another student identified as Kemi and the CUSTECH staff member were kidnapped in front of the Living Faith Church, Osara, about five minutes’ drive from their school last Monday.
It was however learnt that the three of them were kidnapped because their assailants were angry the families of their former victims were too poor to pay any ransom.
The kidnappers who were said to be carrying assorted dangerous weapons, including AK-47 rifles were said to have swooped on them and forcibly dragged them into the forest.
A source in the family of Christianah said the kidnappers called on Monday night and demanded N30 million, Vanguard reports.
The source added that the gunmen later shifted ground and agreed to collect N3 million.
The family source said the kidnappers were furious and rejected outright the N300,000 the family offered to pay.
“The kidnappers said they would not budge until the requested N3 million was paid. They said they had suffered initial loss a week ago, when those they kidnapped were so poor that they could not come up with any reasonable amount.
“They (kidnappers) said their initial victims had no mobile phone with them to even establish contact with any of their family members. And when they came up with a numbers, the family members told them outright that they didn’t have any money to spare for kidnappers, asking them to keep their victims with them.”
He said the kidnappers informed them that it was while out of annoyance they were returning the ‘poor victims’ that they saw the two students and lecturer and they decided to exchange them for their ‘lost investment’.
