….As gun men issue one week deadline to victims’ relatives
Abductors of 57 people from Kafin-Koro, Adunu and Kwagana villages in Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State have issued one week deadline to families of relatives to pay ransom or have the victims killed.
This is coming as family members of the remaining victims are calling on Governor Mohammed Umar Bago, well spirited individuals and corporate organisations to come to their aid and save the lives of their loved ones from being killed by the armed men.
The victims including women and children were thereafter taken through the forest in Sarkin pawa, headquarters of Munya local government area of the state by the armed men who have been demanding for cash, food items and other materials before they can regain their freedom.
It was gathered that the gunmen had initially demanded N100million ransom for the release of all of them, but later negotiated individually with families of each of their captive.
The gun men according to a relative to one of the victims have so far received the sum of, N32.7 million as ransom from different families who paid deferent sums of money depending on their bargaining power and the individuals involved.
The relative said, “Some of us sold our personal belongings to be able to raise the N32.7 million paid to them, and this is aside various food items, motorcycles and other things they asked us to bring before they can release our loved ones who has been in captivity for months now”.
While some families paid between N2 million to N4 million to secure freedom for their loved ones, others who are not as financially buoyant pay between N600, 000 and N700, 000 before they issued a fresh one week ultimatum for them to either pay the ransom or have the remaining ones killed, because they can no longer feed them.
The relative who said he cannot tell exactly the number of people still in captivity is pleading with the state government, well spirited individuals and cooperate organisations to come to their aid to secure the release of the remaining captives before the one week deadline expires.
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