Kidnappers holding 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps members in Imo State have allegedly subjected the victims, including female corps members, to physical assault as they reduced the ransom demand to N5m per person.
The development has heightened fears among the victims’ families as the deadline reportedly issued by the abductors for payment of the ransom draws closer.
The prospective corps members were kidnapped on Thursday while travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to their respective NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The victims were reportedly travelling in two buses when gunmen intercepted them along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State.
A relative of one of the victims, Alhaja Alimot Akande, said on Sunday that the abductors had started beating the victims.
Akande, whose 25-year-old sister, Kehinde, is among those in captivity, described the situation as “horrible, scary and overwhelming,” appealing to the government to intensify efforts to secure their release.
She said the kidnappers had reduced the ransom from the initial N50m demanded for each victim to N5m.
“They are still demanding N5 million. They have come down to N5 million each,” she said.
Asked if the demand applied to all 20 victims, Akande replied, “Yes.”
She also confirmed that the abductors were not sparing the female victims from the alleged assault.
“They are not sparing anybody. They are beating all of them,” she said.
According to her, one of the abducted corps members had been allowed to speak with his father, with the kidnappers allegedly monitoring the calls to determine the family’s capacity to raise the ransom.
Akande said the families were relying on assurances from security agencies while efforts continued to raise funds for the victims’ release.
“The police are telling us to still be buying time. We are still looking for the money. Depending, they will see them rescued,” she said.
The parents of the victims had earlier sought the intervention of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, after the abductors reportedly demanded N50m for each of the 20 graduates, amounting to N1bn.
The parents, who visited the monarch at his private residence in Bodija, Ibadan, were accompanied by the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, and the Aseyin of Iseyinland, Oba Sefiu Adeyeri.
They appealed to Ladoja to intervene, saying they could not raise the N1bn ransom demanded by the kidnappers.
Ladoja subsequently assured the families that efforts were being made to rescue the victims unharmed, while the police commissioner said he had been in contact with his Imo counterpart over the incident.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Government said it was working with the Imo State Government and security agencies to secure the release of the abducted graduates.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Information, Prince Dotun Oyelade, said the government had deployed its experience from the recent abduction of students and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area in its engagement with the Imo authorities.
He said Oyo was maintaining government-to-government contacts with Imo while also engaging security agencies in both states.
“We are in close contacts at government-to-government level and actively with the security apparatus in Oyo and Imo states,” Oyelade said.
The commissioner said the state was also sharing lessons from the Oriire abduction and the recommendations contained in the report of the Justice Mojeed Owoade-led judicial panel with the Imo authorities.
Oyelade, however, said the government would not reveal details of its strategy because of the sensitive nature of the rescue operation.
He added that the Federal Government and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces should account for the broader national security response to the incident.
The commissioner stressed that the fact that the graduates were abducted outside Oyo State would not stop the government from working for their safe return.
“Oyo State Government had not and will not abandon its citizens. We will continue to work endlessly and desperately to secure the release of our children,” he said.