Abducted NYSC Corps members Photo: Facebook
By Victory Oghene
The kidnappers who abducted the 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in Imo State have gone berserk over inability to get the ₦1 billion ransome form parents.
Based on this development, the kidnappers have allegedly assaulted thier victims by beating them and also reducing their ransom demand to N5 million per victim.
A relative of one of the victims, Alhaja Alimot Akande, disclosed that the abductors initially demanded N50 million for each victim — totaling N1 billion — but have now reduced it to N5 million each, totaling N100 million.
Akande, who spoke through her daughter in Ibadan on Sunday, alleged that the kidnappers had started beating the victims, including the women.
“When I spoke to my sister, they started beating them since yesterday,” she said.
Asked if the female victims were also being assaulted, she replied: “They are not sparing anybody. They are beating all of them.”
She added that one victim was allowed to speak with his father while the abductors monitored the calls to assess the families’ ability to raise the ransom.
The victims were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State to their NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom States on Thursday, October 2, when gunmen attacked two commercial buses around Umunoha on the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Mbaitoli LGA of Imo State.
Some of the victims identified by parents are Makinde Mary Oluwapelumi, Akande Kehinde Morufat, Abdul Temiloluwa Sarah, Adeniran Mariam Olulola, Adefioye Ayomide Isaac, Adewale Paul Iyanuoluwa and Oyede Esther Funmilayo.
