Parents of Kidnapped Pupils given 48-hours ultimatum

As four pupils, a teacher and a vice-principal of Lagos Junior Model College, Igbonla, Epe, Lagos State, spend five days in captivity, the kidnappers have given their families 48 hours to pay the ransoms placed on them.

 This is just as the abductors told the families on Monday that the health condition of the schoolboy, reported to be sick, had worsened.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the ransoms demanded for the six victims had also been reduced to N6m.

 

The attackers, said to be five gunmen and a woman, had last Thursday, at about 8am, invaded the school during the morning prayers.

The abductors reportedly shot into the air before making away with the pupils, identified as Isaac Adebisi, Okonkwo Emmanuel, Abu and Jeremiah; the English Language/Civic Education teacher, Lukman Oyerinde, and the VP, A.O. Oyesola.

Our correspondent had also reported that the kidnappers, who were still believed to be within the Epe area, got across to the families of the victims on the following day and demanded N5m for each of them.

The gunmen were said to have also fired a warning shot while conversing with the families on the telephone as the families reportedly begged, promising to pay the ransoms.

It was also reported on Monday that one of the schoolboys fell sick in the kidnappers’ hideout, as the attackers warned the families to hurry on the payment of the ransoms.

The kidnappers, who reportedly told the family of the affected schoolboy that they had administered treatment to him, later reduced the ransom to N3.5m for each of the victims. By Monday, the ransom was reportedly reduced to N1m for each of the victims.

A source said the kidnappers gave them a 48-hour ultimatum to pay, as the condition of the sick schoolboy had worsened.