Some suspected kidnappers abducted a 300-level student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Christiana Idowu, along the Ikorodu-Yaba Road last week.
A family source who talked with reporters on the condition of anonymity on Monday revealed that the kidnappers were demanding N3 million as a ransom before releasing the student.
According to our source, Christiana left her house in the Itaoluwo district of Ikorodu to attend industrial training at the University of Lagos in the Yaba area of the state before being kidnapped.
The source went on to say that after she was unavailable for a while, the kidnappers contacted her family via phone, demanding a ransom of N3 million before she could be released.
The source stated that after many appeals from the family, the abductors agreed that a sum of N350,000 be given to a specified account, which the family did, but the abductors refused to release her.
The source said, “They are communicating with the family through her WhatsApp, and they demanded N3m. We appealed to them, and it was reduced to N1m, then N500,000, and later, they asked that we pay N350,000.
“After we paid the N350,000 ransom, they refused to release her to us and were demanding that we send the bank statement of the account we made the transfer from before they would release her to us.
The source said, “They are communicating with the family through her WhatsApp, and they demanded N3m. We appealed to them, and it was reduced to N1m, then N500,000, and later, they asked that we pay N350,000.
“After we paid the N350,000 ransom, they refused to release her to us and were demanding that we send the bank statement of the account we made the transfer from before they would release her to us.
“We have reported the matter to the police and cannot handle it as a family again. We are urging the government and the public to come to our aid.”
When contacted, Folashade Oluwole, the Ogun State Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, said she had not been informed of the incident but had promised to get back to our correspondent. She had yet to do so as of the time of filling out this report.
According to reports, on August 22, some youths in Lagos State thwarted an attempted kidnapping of a car dealer on Ebute Igbogbo Road in Ikorodu Local Government Area.
The accused, Taiwo Olayinka, Azeez Sodiq, and Saheed Moonstruck, were detained by the Lagos State Police Command.
A viral video shows the three suspects undressed and covered in blood, sitting inside a car while being brutally questioned and thrashed by the teens who apprehended them following the botched kidnapping attempt.
Benjamin Hundeyin, the command’s public relations officer, confirmed the suspects’ capture via his X account.
Hundeyin clarified the situation, stating that the trio were suspected of being thieves or kidnappers and that an inquiry was ongoing.
