A mother of one of the freed National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members has disclosed that she paid N6 million ransom for her son’s release.
Prospective corps members were abducted on October 1 after gunmen attacked two buses travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to the South East and Sputh South states. The attack took place along the Owerri-Onitsha expressway in Imo State.
Initially, the kidnappers demanded N50 million for each of the 19 abducted corps member, bringing the total ransom to N950 million.
After the release of the corps members, the mother of one of them granted an interview to News Central Television on Wednesday, October 7, saying the kidnappers initially demanded N50 million for each victim before eventually accepting N6 million for her son.
“Initially, they asked us to pay N50 million per head. We asked whether the amount was for all of them, but they insisted that no, it was for each person. Later, we started begging them to take N500,000. But they said no and started scaring us,” she said in Yoruba.
“Three days ago, they called and said we should pay N15 million. We kept begging them that all we had was N5.5 million. They said no and insisted on N6 million. So, it’s that N6 million we paid.”
The mother said the kidnappers asked the family of the victims to send representatives to meet them in Ibadan as part of arrangements for the ransom payment.
“They called all the parents of all the victims. Twenty of them are in the bush. They then asked us to send three persons each to meet with them in Ibadan. My husband and my son’s elder brother went.
“When they got to the meeting place, they asked them to send the money to an account and that when they got to Imo state, they should change the money into dollars.”
She said her elder son was among those who met the abductors and delivered the ransom.
“It is not rumours. They have all been released and sent to us. His brother is among the people who went to meet with the abductors three days ago. They left with the ransom,” she said.
“It was the brother who called us this evening to say that they had handed the ransom to the kidnappers and that they had released our son. We also spoke to the boy.”
The mother narrated how the incident affected her, saying: “Since he was kidnapped, I have been stooling. I couldn’t sleep either. But I was relieved when I heard they had been released. It was as though the chains all over me were loosened.”