The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ransom

  • Don’t pay N20m ransom, police tell regent’s family

    •Residents allege complicity

    The police in Ondo State have cautioned the family of the abducted Regent of Akungba- Akoko in Akoko South West Local Government Area, Princess Oluwatoyin Omosowon, against paying the N20 million ransom demanded by her captors.

    The 45-year-old regent and her aides were waylaid on Wednesday on the Owo/Oba-Akoko/Akungba-Akoko Road on her way from Akure, where she had attended a public function at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA).

    The police reiterated their readiness to rescue the regent without payment of ransom by the family.

    Police spokesman Wole Ogodo warned the family not to contact the abductors without informing the police. He urged the family to “carry the police along”.

    His words: “The police are interested in the matter. We can only achieve success by working with the family.

    “Several kidnappers had been arrested in the state. This particular case will not be an exception. We shall not disappoint the people as the captors would be arrested.

    “If the family pays any ransom without informing the police, they are not helping matters and the police will not be a party to that.”

    Ogodo assured that the regent would be freed soon as the command has intensified efforts to rescue her.

    Residents have alleged a conspiracy theory in the abduction.

    They accused some of the candidates jostling for the throne of the Alale of Akungba-Akoko of alleged complicity in her disappearance.

    The Alale stool has been  vacant since 2005.

    Sources said the regent’s aides -a personal assistant and private security- are from her ruling house.

    Both of them have been released by the kidnappers and are helping the police with their investigations.

    It was learnt that the official driver of the Adekunle Ajasin University (AAU), Akungba-Akoko, who drove the vehicle, is still in capitivity.

    The Akungba Akoko Progressives Union has called on security agencies to ensure the safe release of the regent.

    Its president, Dr Lawrence Ekundayo, urged the police and other security agencies to speed up their rescue efforts.

  • Free my husband, woman begs kidnappers

    mrs. Grace Magic-Kingdom, whose husband, Otuke, was abducted by gunmen in Bayelsa State on August 16, is begging his captors to release him.

    Otuke is one of the four Setraco workers, who were abducted at a project site and taken away on a speed boat.

    The others are Caleb Agein, Gabriel Oghene and Godwill Udodong.

    Speaking to reporters in Benin City, Mrs Magic-Kingdom said her husband was receiving malaria treatment when he was abducted.

    She said life had been miserable for her family since his abduction, adding that they need to pay house rent and buy food.

    The victim’s elder brother, Oke, said the kidnappers were demanding N50 million ransom.

    Wondering where the kidnappers expected them to get the money, he said Otuke’s salary is less than N90,000 monthly.

    Oke urged the kidnappers to release the victims.

  • Police: no demand for ransom yet

    Abductors of activist lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, may have contacted his family and are demanding N150 million ransom for his release.

    But Ozekhome’s elder brother, Pius, told a confidant that no relative had been contacted.

    Ozekhome, his driver and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Athanasious Ugbomhe were kidnapped at the weekend.

    According to reports in the social media yesterday, Ozekhome’s abductors have contacted his family and are demanding a ransom of N150 million with a three-day ultimatum.

    However, a close friend of Ugbomhe confided in The Nation yesterday that his abductors had demanded N100 million for his release.

    The source said they opened contact on Sunday, adding that “since then they have not called again.”

    His words: “This man requires constant medical attention. He is a good person and not a moneybags. They should release him unconditionally.”

    Edo State police spokesman Moses Eguavoen said: “We are monitoring the situation and we are still searching.”

    On the issue of ransom, he said: “We are not aware of that yet.

    “The families have not told us anything of such, but you know in such cases, the families always want to be careful. They, most times, don’t tell us about ransom. We have not heard that but we are still searching.”

     

  • Oil baron secures freedom after N20m ransom

    Chief Christopher Ezenku, popularly known as ‘Nkwu bu ego’, an oil-baron, has regained his freedom after paying N20million ransom to his abductors.

    Ezenku, an indigene of Umuoru, Uga in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State was kidnapped on Tuesday by unknown gunmen while he was driving into his house at Patrick Avenue off Faulks Road, Aba, Abia State.

    The Nation reliably gathered that the petroleum dealer was dropped at the outskirts of the commercial city in the early hours of yesterday after his family members had met the N20 million ransom demanded by the abductors.

    A source, who preferred anonymity, said the victim made the first contact with his family immediately he was dropped at a particular location somewhere at the outskirt of Aba by his abductors.

    It was learnt that his recent abduction was the third attempts by kidnappers, who have fleeced the family of between N10 to N20 million paid as ransom in order to secure his freedom.

    Investigation by The Nation revealed that family members of the victim until his release were yet to make a formal report at the Ariaria Police Division under whose jurisdiction the incident took place.

    The family members, The Nation gathered, had thwarted all efforts made by police in Aba and the State Headquarters to come into the matter as they refused to speak with the police or provide possible information that could lead to the arrest of the suspected kidnappers.

     

     

     

  • Teachers’ kidnappers reduce ransom

    Three primary school teachers, who were abducted at Orhogbua Primary school in Ekenwan village, are yet to be released after 13 days in captivity.

    Patience Osadolor, Momodu Aisha and Patience Oroghene were abducted on July 30 and a ransom of N60million was placed on them.

    Their abductors reduced the ransom to N15million last week and further reduced it to N7.5million, which is N2.5m per teacher.

    An official of the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), who pleaded anonymity, said the kidnappers informed the victims’ families that the N7.5million was the least they would collect.

    A source said the spouses have sent out Save our Soul letters to kind hearted Nigerians to help them raise funds for the release of their wives.

     

  • Ex-Ondo commissioner’s mum’s abductors demand N50m ransom

    The abductors of Mrs. Olufunke Olatubora, mother of former Ondo State Commissioner for Education Remi Olatubora, are demanding N50 million ransom for her release, it was learnt yesterday.

    The octogenarian was kidnapped on Sunday at her home in Iyansan, Irele Local Government, around 1am.

    Sources said about six gunmen took the woman away into the creeks in a speed boat.

    Sources said the family and the kidnappers are negotiating the ransom.

    Olatubora said he had faith in God that his mother would be freed soon.

    He declined comment on whether the family was negotiating with the kidnappers or not.

    Police spokesman Wole Ogodo assured the family that Mrs. Olatubora would be rescued soon.

     

  • Abducted journalist: Kidnappers demand N6m ransom

    Abductors of a journalist and nursing mother, Mrs Olubunmi Oke, a staff of the Nigeria Television Authority, kidnapped in Akure, are asking for N6 million ransom. They initially asked for N15 million. The family has, however, been unable to raise the money.

    Women journalists under the aegis of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) are therefore, seeking uncon-ditional release of their kidnapped colleague.

    In a statement released yesterday and signed by NAWOJ chairman, Ondo State Chapter, Mrs Olutope Ayo Fashuyi, the association said the kidnapped member, Mrs Olubunmi Oke, a staff of Nigeria Television Authourity, Akure, was abducted by unknown gunmen,while returning home after casting the 7 o’ clock news.

    She was abducted around 11pm, Thursday night.

    Her colleagues got wind of the incident on Friday. “We passionately appeal to these people that Mrs Oke be released, being a nursing mother to enable her attend to her baby. NAWOJ equally calls on the security agencies in the country to do all they can to ensure her quick release in order for her to breast-feed her baby,” said Fashuyi.

     

  • ‘FG won’t pay ransom for French hostages’

    ‘FG won’t pay ransom for French hostages’

    •Nigeria, France meet to review situation in Mali

    No ransom will be paid by the Federal Government for the release of the French family of seven captured last month by terrorists in the north, Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr.Olugbenga Ashiru, said yesterday.

    The French including a five-year-old kid were captured while holidaying in Northern Cameroun and moved into Nigeria by their abductors who said their action was provoked by the intervention of France in Mali.

    They demanded that France should quit Mali immediately, failing which the hostages will be killed.

    Paris dispatched its Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Laurent Fabius, to Abuja yesterday to review with Nigeria the situation in Mali and discuss the fate of the French hostages.

    Mr. Fabius met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

    Mr. Ashiru, who briefed journalists on the interaction, said.

    Nigerian security agencies are working round the clock to ensure the release of the hostages.

    He said: “The Federal Government, with all the security agencies, is doing everything possible to ensure that we get the hostages released without any harm done to them. So we are doing everything possible. We want it to end peacefully so that no hostages will not be harmed in the process.”

    On negotiation with the group, he said: “Well, am not saying that. I’m saying that we will do everything possible to ensure that we get the hostages released. As part of our own policy, we don’t pay ransom to terrorists but we will do everything possible to ensure that those terrorists release their captives without any harm done to them.

    On the meeting, he said: “We were able to review the relations between our two countries. We are satisfied with the political relations, quite robust relations between us. On the economic level also a number of French companies are very active here. So we reviewed all these relations and we are happy that we are both doing very well.”

    “At the regional level, we reviewed the security situation in Mali. Of course, I must take this opportunity to again thank France for what they did in Mali, for the decisive intervention because if the French had not taken the steps they did at that time, Mali would have today become a terrorist country and if that happened the target would be to further destabilise the sub-region.

    “Nigeria would be a prime target, but we are happy with the intervention, and of course the Nigerian troops under AFISMA are now on ground, they are pushing forward, they are ensuring that the terrorist are totally destroyed and of course their capability are also being attacked so that we make them inoperative in that region.”

    The French minister said his country needs to be “determined and discrete” in trying to save the lives of his abducted compatriots.

    He said it is important to free the hostages, which include a child younger than five.

    Fabius said in French: “So it is in the name of humanity that they need to be freed both quickly and well.”

     

  • ‘Nobody should hold PDP to ransom’

    ‘Nobody should hold PDP to ransom’

    Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu yesterday warned that no individual members’ ambition should be allowed to ground the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Speaking on the crisis rocking the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party, Aliyu said member’s ambition should not cause disaffection within the party. He spoke when he hosted the members of the State Working Committee.

    ‘’No ambition of any individual should be allowed to stop the party from working at any level. Whether it is the party officials who are interested in something or individual member, the party must not be held to ransom.

    ‘’The party is supreme. The party is the mother of all, no matter who you are, you cannot be greater than the party and we must respect it,’’ Aliyu warned those involved in the internal crisis of the party.

    Lamenting what he called the tribal coloration being brought into the crisis, the governor said the party should be firm and decisive’’.

    Aliyu said wrangling within a party is normal, arguing that the crisis could be averted if the party structure is effective and in place.

    The governor said: ‘’You can’t stop crisis in any political party but if the party structure is strong, it should be able to mitigate whatever an outsider or an aggrieved person may plan’’.

    He advised the party leadership to be well organised and be sensitive to peoples need and to play its role as the ruling party in the state.

    State Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdulrahman Enagi, said the state working committee identified with the laudable achievements of Governor Aliyu.

    ‘’It was so gratifying when the national poverty assessment rated Niger State as the state with the lowest percentage of poverty index in the country. We are proud to be associated with this milestone achievement,’’ Engagi said.

     

  • UNIZIK ex-VC: Kidnappers demand N50m ransom

    Abductors of the former Vice-Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Prof. Ilochi Okafor, have demanded N50million ransom for his release.

    Though the police did not confirm this, sources close to the family said the abductors made the demand early yesterday.

    The source did not give further details. But the Enugu State Police Command has said it is on top of the situation.

    Prof Okafor was abducted on Sunday morning on his way to a church service.

    Police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu said the former Vice-Chancellor would be rescued.

    He said the anti-kidnap squad of the command was on the trail of the kidnappers.