The parents of the five 5 kidnapped students from the Apostolic Faith Group of Schools in Emure, Ekiti, who were recently freed from captivity have listed the items the bandits demanded before letting them go.
They said on Sunday that their children’s abductors requested fried rice and energy drinks in addition to the N15 million cash ransom to release their children.
The parents gave the information while speaking with Punch Newspaper.
They added that securing their children’s release was a laborious process.
After the kidnappers received a N15 million ransom, the five schoolchildren who had been kidnapped were freed in the wee hours of Sunday.
The kidnappers however demanded to get cigarettes, energy drinks, and fried rice in addition to the ransom.
The school owner, Gabriel Adesanya, disclosed that the body of the school bus driver who was killed by the kidnappers was yet to be recovered.
He said, “The corpse of the driver has not been found yet. The freed kidnapped victims said he was k!lled between yesterday and this morning. We cannot trace the body at the moment since we don’t know the location where they were kept. We have discussed with the police whether we can recover it.”
A parent of one of the abducted victims, Adebisi Jegede, confirmed to reporters that the kidnappers received payment in exchange for the student’s release.
He said, “A ransom was paid to the kidnappers and the money raised was around the N15m they demanded. I was not the one that counted the money but it was around that amount.”
After talks, the kidnappers reportedly dropped their initial demand of N100 million to N15 million, according to the victims’ relatives.
Last Monday, the victims were being driven home by the bus driver when they were kidnapped.
The ordeal leading up to their release was described as agonizing by the parents and relatives of the abducted individuals, who were relieved to be reunited with their loved ones after spending 6 days in the kidnappers’ den.
A man, whose wife and son were among the abducted individuals, claimed that the abductors received a N15 million ransom in addition to a few other items in a large forest before the abductees were freed.
The source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “9 persons were kidnapped. But 8 persons were released, we didn’t see the 9th person. The kidnapped persons told us after their release that the gunmen shot the driver dead”.
“It gave us a lot of problems to see the kidnappers. When we first entered the forest, we spent about two hours without seeing them. We had to go forth and back before we saw the kidnappers.
“When we eventually saw them, they took us into the bush far away from where we parked the motorcycle that we took there. We gave them what they demanded and they released the kidnapped persons to us.
“We gave them N15m and the food items they asked us to buy for them – eight packs of fried rice with chicken and drinks – can malt drink, fearless energy drink, bullet energy drink and cigarettes.
“As they collected the money and the items, they said we should run off.”