Kidnappers who abducted 19 graduates travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, for their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps have demanded N950m for their release.
The victims were riding in two buses when gunmen attacked them on Thursday along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Umunoha, Imo State.
Isiah Akpan, the managing director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, confirmed the incident on Friday, saying the gunmen demanded N50m for each of the victims.
He stated that the occupants of the vehicles, which belong to his company, were corps members on their way to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom.
The abductors reached out to some of the victims’ families and demanded N50m for each person.
This demand deepened the anxiety felt by the families as security operatives kept up their efforts to find the missing passengers.
Recalling how the incident unfolded, Akpan said the two buses departed Bodija/Samonda Park in Ibadan on Wednesday but were held up by traffic near Benin, Edo State.
According to him, the vehicles finally arrived in Onitsha, Anambra State, late that day.
He explained that they were unable to continue the trip because of the road’s condition, which forced the drivers and passengers to pass the night in Oba.
Akpan said the buses set off again at about 5 am on Thursday.
He said they had only just entered Imo State when gunmen came out of the bush.
“They blocked the two vehicles and took 19 passengers, all corps members, into the bush,” he added.
Akpan said the drivers managed to escape and raised the alarm with security personnel at a nearby checkpoint, which led the police and military to start combing the area.
He, however, said the search operation was initially hampered when some villagers allegedly stopped security personnel from taking the abandoned buses away from the scene.
According to him, this intervention slowed the security personnel’s movement as they tried to chase the abductors.
The two buses were later left at the scene, with the passengers’ belongings strewn inside the vehicles.
The Imo State Police Command had said on Thursday night that 10 victims were rescued.
In a statement, the Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, explained that security agencies were tracking the kidnappers and had begun a coordinated search for the remaining victims.
Okoye, however, could not confirm whether the rescued victims were among the abducted corps members.
A parent of one of the victims, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the press that the abductors reached her through her son’s phone and demanded N50m for his release.
“The kidnappers called with my son’s phone this morning (Friday) and demanded N50m for his release. The N50m is for only my son,” she said.
Another mother, identified as Mrs. Oladosu, whose daughter, Greatness, was travelling to Uyo, said the abductors briefly contacted the family through her daughter’s phone.
She stated that the family was able to see Greatness and other victims during a video call.
“They used my daughter’s number to call us. We saw her and other corps members sitting on the ground in the bush, crying. Where will petty traders get N50m? They are just going to serve Nigeria; why this punishment?” Oladosu lamented.
In a viral video on Friday, Mrs. Alimotu Akanke, the mother of another victim, Akande Farouq, said she had been tracking her son’s journey when the distress message arrived.
Farouq, who was posted to Abia State, according to his mother, managed to send a one-word message, “Kidnappers!” to his family WhatsApp group before his telephone line went incommunicado.
A manifest for the two vehicles involved showed 30 passengers, 15 per bus, whereas two other buses run by the same company and bound for Abia State avoided the assault.
The manifest included names such as Akande Kehinde, Olaleye Mary, Oladosu Greatness, Obafunsho Rhoda, Abdulrof Anifat, Esther Oyede, Hassan Usman, Ayomide Isa, Mary Makinde, Azeez Adejoke, and Abdulrazaq Anifat.
