Kidnappers holding 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps members abducted along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State have reduced their ransom demand from 50 million naira to five million naira per victim.
The reduction brings the total ransom demand from one billion naira to 100 million naira.
However, the development has failed to ease the anxiety of the victims’ families, as the abductors are allegedly beating the captives.
One of the affected parents, Alhaja Alimot Akande, who spoke through her daughter in Ibadan, Oyo State, said the victims had been subjected to physical assault since Friday.
She appealed to the Federal and state governments to urgently intervene and secure the release of the prospective corps members.
The victims were travelling from Ibadan to their NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom States on Thursday when gunmen attacked the two buses conveying them around Umunoha on the Owerri-Onitsha Road.
The parents have released the names of some of the abducted prospective corps members, including Makinde Mary Oluwapelumi, Akande Kehinde Morufat, Abdul Temiloluwa Sarah, Adeniran Mariam Olulola, Adefioye Ayomide Isaac, Adewale Paul Iyanuoluwa and Oyede Esther Funmilayo.
The parents also disputed reports that ten passengers were rescued by security operatives, saying those who escaped reportedly fled into the bush.
Akande said she could not confirm how much had been raised towards the ransom, explaining that she was not privy to arrangements between the kidnappers and other families.
She said the families had been relying on assurances from the police while efforts continued to secure the victims’ release.
Meanwhile, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, has assured the parents that their children would be rescued unharmed.
The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Abimbola, also said he had contacted his Imo State counterpart and that security agencies were working to secure the victims’ rescue.
The Managing Director of Uko Akwa Ibom Motors Nigeria Limited, Isiah Akpan, had earlier confirmed the initial 50-million-naira ransom demand per victim.
