Shocking! Kidnappers Of 121 Kaduna Students Threaten To Collect Interest Over Delayed 80M Ransom Payment

Shocking! Kidnappers Of 121 Kaduna Students Threaten To Collect Interest Over Delayed 80M Ransom Payment

Fresh facts have emerged showing that bandits are demanding ‘demurrage’ for extra days the 80 remaining students of Bethel Baptist School in Kaduna State spend in captivity.

A source close to the negotiating team told Sunday PUNCH that the bandits were insisting on the N80m ransom and increasing it with the demurrage.

The source said, “There is no positive news yet from the bandits. We spoke with them and they are insisting that they (parents) must pay them N80m. They are even threatening to raise the ransom above N80m. They said with every additional day, they would increase the ransom.

“They said every passing day would be demurrage. We begged them to collect what we had given them, but they refused. We have been pleading and reaching out to people to assist us but there is no money in the country. The little we have, we have given the bandits, yet they refuse (to release them).”

Our correspondent had reported that bandits had increased their ransom to N80m, while the mother of one of the students had been diagnosed with a swollen heart.

The bandits, on July 5, 2021, stormed the school located along the Kaduna-Kachia highway in the Chikun Local Government Area and made away with the students.

The proprietor, who is also the President, Kaduna Baptist Conference, Rev. Ishaya Jangado, had said no fewer than 121 students were abducted by the bandits.

Twenty-eight students of the Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, were released after spending 20 days in the kidnappers’ den, while four others reportedly escaped.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people have been kidnapped in Zamfara State between June and August this year, while more than half of them are still in captivity. The state Assembly Speaker’s father, stepmother and five others, 18 staff members and students of College of Agriculture and Animal Science Bakura, as well as the 70 people kidnapped in Rini village of the Bakura LGA were part of those yet to be rescued.

Also, hundreds of kidnapped victims of Dansadau Emirate are in the bandits’ dens, despite frantic efforts made by both their family members and the security agents to secure their freedom.

The kidnapped travellers along Sokoto-Gusau road and those kidnapped at Gora-Namaye were also in captivity.

Similarly, other victims of some villages in Magami district had yet to be rescued, while negotiations were ongoing to rescue victims abducted from Shinkafi LGA.

There are several other individuals kidnapped in Maradun the LGA and yet to be rescued.