Abductors Of Lagos school Kidnap Slash Ransom
Parents of the six abducted Senior Secondary School students kidnapped last Thursday by militants at the Lagos Model College, Igbonla, Epe, met Monday, with management of the college to deliberate on the way out, particularly raising the huge ransom demanded for the release of their children.
This followed the selective ransom negotiation between them and the kidnappers.
While some of them considered to have good jobs were asked to pay between N20 million and N50 million for the release of their wards, others were asked to pay less.
It was gathered that the main agenda for Monday’s meeting was how to pool resources to ensure the release of all the abducted students. However, at the end of the deliberation during which tempers reportedly rose, management of the school was hesitant to take part in the ongoing ransom negotiation.
Rather, it appealed to the parents to exercise patience, assuring them that the students would soon be released.
It also described as untrue, assertions that it was insensitive to the plight of the abducted students.
The apprehensive parents as gathered, left for their homes without much hope.
A relation of one of the parents who gave his name simply as Johnbull said; “My brother came home downcast yesterday. Like I told you, he is hypertensive. He said that they were warned not to talk to newsmen again.
He also said that the school and the state government are not ready to assist them to pay the ransom. The state government according to him said it would work with security operatives towards the release of the students.
The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss how to gather what each parent had and pay so that none of the students will be left behind.
“Since the last conversation with the kidnappers two days ago, they have not contacted my brother. Like I said , we have only raised N250,000. But one of the parents however claimed that he was contacted and that the ransom for his son’s release was reduced to N10 million.
But from the last conversation with my brother, they requested for N15 million. As it is, the affected parents will have to bail their children themselves.”
It was also revealed that some fishermen within the border of Lagos and Ogun states were informants to the kidnapers.
Some of the fishermen according to police sources were usually sighted within a given period at the axis, apparently to survey the area and report to the militants. To this end, Police sources threatened that any fisherman found close to flashpoints within the riverine areas would be picked for interrogation.
