Kogi: Kidnappers of five-year-old boy demand N30m ransom

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NIGERIA: BARELY two weeks after kidnapping a five-year-old boy, Jonathan Suleiman, in Okenne, Kogi State, the abductors have demanded for ransom.

The kidnappers, who got in touch with Jonathan’s parents, are asking them to pay N30 million for his release.

It would be recalled that last March 7, Jonathan and his elder sister were in the family Toyota Camry car going to

school along Elf area on the way to Federal College of Education (FCE), Okene in Kogi State, when four gunmen, allegedly dressed in military uniform, stopped them.

The GatewayMail learnt that attempt made by the driver and the elder sister to hurriedly run away with Suleiman was aborted as the kidnappers grabbed the boy and escaped in the car.

However, the cousin to the kidnapped boy, Emmanuel Gabriel, on Monday confirmed that the abductors had contacted the family asking for N50 million, adding that the kidnappers later reduced the ransom to N30 million.

“The kidnappers contacted the family demanding for N50 million, which they later reduced to N30 million, but the problem is where do we get such amount for God sake?” Gabriel bemoaned.

He urged the kidnappers to see Jonathan as an innocent boy, with the mental tortured he had been subjected to since his abduction and pleaded for his release.

His words: “The family is hereby passionately and profusely begging the captors to please consider the innocence of the boy, and the mental torture subjected to over a week he has been in captivity, and please release him to enjoy parental care.”

Gabriel, three days after the abduction of Jonathan, said that after grabbing the boy, the car was later abandoned by the kidnappers few kilometers away from the scene.

“The incident occurred on Monday when the boy and his elder sister were being conveyed to school in the family Toyota Camry car,” Gabriel said, adding: “The abductors are yet to contact the family up till now.”
He stated that the matter had been reported to the police at Okenne and Lokoja, the state capital.