The abductors of the school pupils and staff members, who were kidnapped in Ekiti State, South West Nigeria on Monday have demanded a N100 million ransom for their release.
This was confirmed by the principal of the secondary section of the school, Boje Olanireti, on Tuesday.
Five students of the Apostolic Faith Group of Schools, Emure Ekiti along with four staff were abducted on their way back from school.
“By the time they opened communication, they first called the husband of one of the teachers and demanded N10m for each kidnapped victim. But when they later called the headmaster, they demanded N100m for all of them.” the principal said.
According to Olanireti, the school bus was conveying 25 students back home after the day’s school work when it was waylaid by the abductors in the Emure community area.
“Immediately the school closed at 3pm, and by the time we gathered all the children, it was already 3:30pm. It was that time that they moved. So, the incident happened between 3:30pm and 4pm. The school is in a suburb of Emure village, so they were going back home in Eporo. The incident occurred just about a five-minute drive from the school to Eporo.” Olanireti said.
“When the gunmen attacked, the people around heard the gunshots and they came to Emure with motorcycles to inform the people in the school about what happened. We immediately reported to the police station at Emure.
“The students were over 25 on the bus when the incident happened. When the gunmen attacked them, they shot the tyre of the vehicle and asked the children to come out of the bus. They asked all of them to lie down. They picked five students and four staff members. They, after that, asked others to go.”
An anonymous family source of one of the kidnap victims in Ekiti has also confirmed that the abductors reached the relatives of one of the students to demand the N10 million per victim, then a N100 million ransom later.
The disturbing news came in the wake of a series of killings and kidnap cases in the state.
Suspected gunmen also killed two Ekiti monarchs who ran into an ongoing kidnap operation in the Ikole Local Government of the state.
The Ekiti State governor, Biodun Oyebanji, commiserated with the families and assured them that all the kidnap victims would be rescued very soon.
The Aremo of Emure Kingdom, Clement Akinola, has also pleaded with the state government to assist in the safe release of the kidnapped victims.