Abducted corps members: Mother reveals how family raised N6m ransom

The mother of one of the 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members abducted in Imo State, Alirat Wahab, has narrated how her family borrowed money and received contributions from relatives, friends and other individuals to raise N6m allegedly demanded for her son’s release.

He said the kidnappers initially demanded N50m for each of the abducted prospective corps members before reducing the amount following pleas from the parents.

She disclosed this in separate interviews with News Central on Wednesday and Thursday, following the release of the 20 victims.Read Daily News

Wahab said: “They first said N50m per child. We pleaded because each child was given the phone for about two minutes, and then they would seize the phone back.

“They said N50m, are we fighting a war with them? In their main war, it’s for each victim.”

According to her, the abductors later agreed to accept N5m before increasing the demand to N15m, after which the family continued negotiating until N6m was eventually agreed.

She said: “As we kept pleading, they initially agreed to N5m, but later refused.

“They started… we became scared. Later on, around three days ago, they said they would collect N15m from us. We started pleading again, saying we only had N5.5m at the time, but they insisted on N6m.”

Wahab said the parents of the abducted victims were later summoned to Ibadan, Oyo State, where they were instructed to send representatives to Imo State with the ransom.

She said: “When they called us that all the parents of the children in the bush… they said about 20 children were in the bush. They told us to meet them in Ibadan, and three representatives for each child should go.”

According to her, her husband and the victim’s brother were among those who travelled to Imo State.

She said the representatives were told not to transfer the money through an account but to take it to Imo State and convert it to dollars.

Wahab said: “When they went, their daddy went, his brother went.

“When they got there, they discussed that we should not send the money through an account.

“By the time they got to Imo State, they should go and convert it to dollars. When they arrived, they converted it to dollars.”

The mother explained that her family eventually raised the N6m through contributions and borrowed funds.

She said: “It was other people that helped us so our money could complete. We borrowed money, and others helped us.

“Some gave N20,000, some N50,000, some gave what they had.

“We went to borrow more money, and that was how the total money was completed to N6m.”

Wahab added that some of the contributions were paid into her sister’s account.

She said: “They were sending it to their account, my sister’s account. They were helping with N20,000, N50,000, N5,000. That was how we collected it.”

Her husband, who also spoke in the Thursday interview, said the parents of the abducted prospective corps members pooled resources to meet the demands of the kidnappers.

He said: “The parents gathered that money together. For us parents, our portion was N6m, while others paid N5m. Our money was more than the others, which we gathered together.”

He added that the parents met at Adamasingba in Ibadan to coordinate the ransom payment and also made additional contributions towards the journey of representatives to Imo State, with each person contributing N100,000.

The family’s account contradicts the position of the Imo State Government, which had said that no ransom was paid for the release of the victims.

Reacting to the government’s position, the father said: “They lied! We the parents gathered that money together.”

Wahab said the family received confirmation of the release after the victim’s elder brother, who travelled to Imo State, contacted them.

She said: “His elder brother was there then. Those who went with us… those who left home.

“They carried the ransom along. It was his elder brother who called us that morning that they had handed the children over to those who delivered the money to them.”

She added that the other parents subsequently travelled to Imo State after the release was confirmed.

The police had on Wednesday confirmed the rescue of the 20 prospective corps members who were abducted while travelling to their NYSC orientation camp.

The victims were reportedly among graduates travelling from Ibadan to their orientation camp in Abia State when they were abducted along the Owerri-Onitsha road in Imo State.

The police said the victims were rescued at Amakohia Ubi Village in Imo State following sustained search-and-rescue operations.

The Force said the victims were subsequently taken for medical assessment and necessary care, while efforts were ongoing to apprehend the perpetrators.

The kidnappers initially demanded N50m for each victim before reducing the ransom demand to N100m for the 20 victims following mounting pressure and negotiations with their families.

The Imo State Government, however, maintained that the victims were released without any ransom being paid.