Family members of abducted kids and instructors from the Apostolic Faith Group of Schools in Emure, Ekiti, have claimed that they paid a ransom of tramadol, N15 million, and fried rice to secure the hostages’ release.
According to Platinum Times, gunmen ambushed a school bus transporting students and staff to Eporo-Ekiti last Monday and abducted five students and four staff members, including the driver, into the forest.
The kidnappers eventually approached the victims’ relatives and wanted a ransom of N100 million for their release; however, after much pleading, they decreased their demand to N15 million on Thursday.
According to relatives of the victims, the captives were released in a forest between Owo and Oba-Akoko in Ondo State at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday.
One of the victims’ parents, who requested anonymity, disclosed that members of the community and other indigenous people, both at home and abroad, donated to the ransom.
He added that the kidnappers requested that the family bring the money, as well as other products such as fried rice, drinks, and tramadol, to the forest in order to ensure the eight victims’ release.
According to a family source, the driver was killed by the kidnappers after refusing to drop his relatives’ phone information in order to call for ransom.
According to one of the parents:
“We have to thank God for the safe return of our children and wives from the forest after they were kidnapped on Monday.
“The kidnappers insisted on collecting N15 million on Saturday, and we rallied the communities, including our people outside the country, to raise the ransom. They even collected a cartoon of tin milk, Black Bullet, fried rice with chicken, soft and energy drinks, and tramadol from us.
“We were asked to take the money and the items to a bush in Ondo State, a farmstead called Ago Paanu at about 7 pm. It is between Oba Akoko and Owo. Before they could release them, they confirmed the money and those items. We walked through the bush till around 1 am when we saw the victims.”
On why the driver was killed by the gunmen, the family source said: “The children told us that when they (kidnappers) were asking for the telephone number of relatives to call from each of them in the forest, the driver told them he didn’t know that of his wife and the school proprietor’s offhand. This made them angry, and they hit him with their gun.
“For five days, he was said to be having issues after the injury he sustained, and was shot dead on Saturday morning. The most painful was that his corpse was burnt in the bush, according to what the pupils told us.
“It was a bitter experience for the victims, especially looking at how the driver was killed. We appreciate the efforts of the state government and the security agencies.”
Recounting how they retrieved the victims in the bush, a parent who spoke at the premises of the hospital said:
“The kidnappers were calling persistently that we should hurry up. They said we should meet them at Ikare Junction. I wondered how come Ikare junction when they kidnap the children at Eporo.
“When we got to Ikare Junction, he said we should buy food, so we went to buy rice and meat. When we were about to get to Waterworks, he told us that we should turn back. Then the kidnapper described a road that only big vehicles could pass. We decided that all of us should not go there so that they would not think that we came with policemen, and that could make them injure the abductees with them.
“When we told them we were on the path, he said only two persons should come. He threatened to waste the kidnapped persons if more than two persons came. Only two continued while the rest of us sat on the road there. The driver of the vehicle and one person continued far into the forest and drove back. So, they now used a motorcycle to trace the kidnappers to drop the money and the food.
“On collecting the money and food, he released the kidnapped persons. They used a motorcycle to bring the kidnapped persons to the road; that was when they called us to bring the vehicle to convey them. The kidnappers collected N15 million. We (parents and families) contributed N4 million, people came to our aid by contributing the rest. Even in the markets, they contributed so that they would be rescued.”
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Police Command, through a statement by its spokesman, DSP Abutu Sunday, claimed the victims were rescued by a combined team of the police and other security agencies, including the Amotekun Corps, local vigilantes, and hunters, with the support of state and federal governments.
Sunday said:
“While we sympathise with the family members of the driver who was suspected to have been killed by the abductors while held hostage, the Command vows to continue with the operation and investigation until the perpetrators are arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.
“Meanwhile, the rescued victims have been handed over to the state government for medical examination and attention.”
When asked about the ransom payment, DSP Sunday said, “We are not aware of it.”