After spending five days in the kidnappers’ den, the captors have freed the abducted Bayelsa State Correspondent of The Guardian Newspaper, Mr Julius Osahon.
Osahon, a former chairman of the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bayelsa State Council, was kidnapped alongside others on Sunday evening.
The incident occurred along the Ewhreni stretch of the East-West road while travelling on Sunny Eru Motors, a commercial passenger bus owned by a private transport firm to Delta State.
The driver of the bus was instantly shot dead by the armed men before whisking away some of the passengers including The Guardian correspondent.
It was, however, learnt that he (Osahon) was set free in the early hours of Saturday and taken to Ughelli Police Station in Delta State for debriefing.
It was gathered that the family coughed up N2m before Osahon was released by his captors.
Recall that his captors had earlier demanded N5m ransom for his release the second day he was abducted.
But they (kidnappers) angrily increased the ransom to N50m because of the wide media coverage his abduction generated.
As of Friday morning, the ransom was reduced to N3m. But as his negotiation for his release by his family members intensified, the kidnappers agreed N2m before he was eventually freed.
Narrating the trauma the family underwent before they secured Osahon’s release, one of his nephews, identified simply as Lucky, said the journalist was released around 1am on Saturday.
He said the area where they (kidnappers) dropped Osahon and other victims for their families was enmeshed in chaos because they lost an indigene to the kidnappers.
The deceased indigene was said to have sighted the kidnappers when they were taking their hostages into the forest and they killed him to avoid the leak of the abduction.
Lucky said Osahon was suffering a lot of pains due to the beatings he and others received in the kidnappers’ den, saying that the family was planning to take him to the hospital for proper evaluation and care.
He regretted that the relevant authorities did not do enough to secure the release of Osahon, saying that if not for the family’s frantic efforts and help from some persons, the story of Osahon’s kidnap would have been a sordid one.
Lucky, however, appreciated all those who helped the family in their prayers and other ways that quickened the release of his uncle (Osahon).