A mother of one of the 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps members abducted in Imo State, Alirat Wahab, has narrated how her family borrowed money and received contributions from relatives and other individuals to raise N6m allegedly demanded by the kidnappers for her son’s release.
Wahab said the kidnappers initially demanded N50m for each of the abducted prospective corps members before reducing the amount after the parents pleaded with them.
She disclosed this in separate interviews with News Central on Wednesday and Thursday, following the release of the 20 victims.
According to her, the kidnappers initially demanded N50m for each of the victims but later reduced the ransom after the parents pleaded with them.
She said, “They first said N50m per child. We pleaded because each child was given the phone for about two minutes, and then they would seize the phone back. They said N50m, are we fighting a war with them? In their main war, it’s for each victim.”
Wahab said the abductors later agreed to take N5m but subsequently increased the demand to N15m.
She said the family continued negotiating with the kidnappers until they eventually settled on N6m.
“As we kept pleading, they initially agreed to N5m, but later refused. They started… we became scared. Later on, around three days ago, they said they would collect N15m from us. We started pleading again, saying we only had N5.5m at the time, but they insisted on N6m,” she said.
The mother said the families of the victims were subsequently summoned to Ibadan, Oyo State, where they were instructed to send representatives to Imo State with the money.
She said the parents were informed that about 20 children were being held and that three representatives were to be sent for each child.
“When they called us that all the parents of the children in the bush… they said about 20 children were in the bush. They told us to meet them in Ibadan, and three representatives for each child should go,” she said.
According to her, her husband and the victim’s brother were among those who travelled to Imo State.
Wahab said the representatives were instructed not to transfer the ransom through an account but to take the money to Imo State and convert it to dollars.
“When they went, their daddy went, his brother went. When they got there, they discussed that we should not send the money through an account. By the time they got to Imo State, they should go and convert it to dollars. When they arrived, they converted it to dollars,” she said.
The mother, in the Thursday interview, explained how her family eventually raised the N6m.
She said relatives, friends and other individuals contributed different amounts, while the family also borrowed money to complete the ransom.
“It was other people that helped us so our money could complete. We borrowed money, and others helped us. Some gave N20,000, some N50,000, some gave what they had. We went to borrow more money, and that was how the total money was completed to N6m,” she said.
Wahab said some of the money was sent to an account belonging to her sister.
“They were sending it to their account, my sister’s account. They were helping with N20,000, N50,000, N5,000. That was how we collected it,” she added.
Her husband, who also spoke in the Thursday interview, said the parents of the abducted prospective corps members pooled their resources to meet the kidnappers’ demands.
He said the family contributed N6m, while some of the other parents contributed N5m.
“The parents gathered that money together. For us parents, our portion was N6m, while others paid N5m. Our money was more than the others, which we gathered together,” he said.
He added that the parents met at Adamasingba in Ibadan to coordinate the ransom payment.
The father said the parents also made additional contributions to fund the journey of representatives to Imo State, with each person contributing N100,000.
The family’s account contradicts the position of the Imo State Government, which said no ransom was paid for the release of the victims.
The father, reacting to the claim, said, “They lied! We the parents gathered that money together.”
The family had earlier confirmed the release of the victim after his elder brother, who travelled to Imo State, contacted them.
According to Wahab, the family was informed that the victims had been handed over after the money was delivered.
She said, “His elder brother was there then. Those who went with us… those who left home. They carried the ransom along. It was his elder brother who called us that morning that they had handed the children over to those who delivered the money to them.”
She added that the other parents travelled to Imo State after the release was confirmed.
The police had on Wednesday confirmed the rescue of the 20 prospective corps members who were abducted while travelling to their NYSC orientation camp.
The victims were reportedly among graduates travelling from Ibadan to their orientation camp in Abia State when they were abducted along the Owerri-Onitsha road in Imo State.
The police said the victims were rescued at Amakohia Ubi Village in Imo State following sustained search-and-rescue operations.
The Force said the victims were subsequently taken for medical assessment and necessary care, while efforts were ongoing to apprehend the perpetrators.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the kidnappers initially demanded N50m for each victim, before reducing the ransom demand to N100m for the 20 victims following mounting pressure and negotiations with their families.
The Imo State Government had maintained that the victims were released without any ransom being paid.
—By Fawzi Kehinde
