A mother of one of the 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members kidnapped 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 stated that the kidnappers initially demanded N50m for each of the abducted prospective corps members before reducing the amount after the parents pleaded with them.
She revealed this in separate interviews with News Central on Wednesday and Thursday, following the release of the 20 prospective NYSC members.
According to her, the abductors 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 stated that the abductors of the prospective NYSC members initially agreed to accept N5m but later raised their demand to N15m.
According to her, the family kept negotiating with the kidnappers until they finally agreed 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 stated that the victims’ families were later called to Ibadan, Oyo State, where they were told to send representatives to Imo State with the money.
She said the parents were told that roughly 20 children were being held and that three representatives needed to be sent for each child.
“When they called us, 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.
She stated that her husband and the victim’s brother were among the people who made the trip to Imo State.
Wahab explained that the representatives were told not to send the ransom via a bank account but instead to carry the money to Imo State and exchange it for dollars.
“When they went, their daddy went, and his brother went. When they got there, they discussed that we should not send the money through an account. By the time they get to Imo State, they should go and convert it to dollars. When they arrived, they converted it to dollars,” she said.
In the Thursday interview, the mother recounted how her family ultimately gathered the N6m.
According to her, relatives, friends, and other individuals gave varying amounts, and the family also took out a loan to make up the full ransom.
“It was other people that helped us so our money could complete. We borrowed money, and others helped us. Some contributed N20,000, some N50,000, and others gave whatever they had. We went to borrow more money, and that was how the total money was completed to N6m,” she said.
Wahab stated that part of the money was transferred to an account that belonged to her sister.
“They were sending it to their account, my sister’s account. They were helping with N20,000, N50,000, and N5,000. That was how we collected it,” she added.
Her husband, who likewise gave his account during Thursday’s interview, stated that the parents of the kidnapped prospective corps members combined their funds to satisfy the kidnappers’ demands. ↻
According to him, his family provided N6m, whereas a number of the other parents gave 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 also mentioned that the parents gathered at Adamasingba in Ibadan to arrange the payment of the ransom.
The father stated that the parents contributed extra money to cover the trip of the representatives to Imo State, with each individual giving N100,000.
The family’s version of events conflicts with what the Imo State Government said, namely that no ransom was paid to secure the victims’ release.
Responding to that claim, the father said, “They lied! We the parents raised that money together.”
The family had previously confirmed the victim’s release after his elder brother, who had gone to Imo State, got in touch with them.
Wahab said the family was told that the victims were handed over once the money had been 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 also mentioned that the remaining parents made the trip to Imo State once the release had been confirmed.
On Wednesday, the police had confirmed that the 20 prospective corps members, who were kidnapped while on their way to their NYSC orientation camp, had been rescued.
Reports indicate that the victims were among graduates travelling from Ibadan to their orientation camp in Abia State when they were seized along the Owerri-Onitsha road in Imo State.
According to the police, the victims were rescued at Amakohia Ubi Village in Imo State after continuous search-and-rescue operations.
The Force stated that the victims were afterwards taken for medical evaluation and necessary treatment, while efforts to arrest the culprits were still underway.
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 NYSC victims were released without any ransom being paid.
