The gunmen who took away Toyin, wife of the Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of The Sun Newspapers, Mr Steve Nwosu, in the dead of night yesterday have demanded a staggering sum as ransom.

“They have made contact with me demanding a ransom of N100 million,” Mr. Nwosu said yesterday evening. “They should realise that journalists don’t have money. I’m appealing to them to release my wife unconditionally. I wonder what is often attracting robbers to my home. My house is not the finest in the area. I’m increasingly getting frustrated,” he added.

The ransom demand seems to contradict the initial thinking that Mrs. Nwosu was a victim of a robbery operation.

The ordeal of the Nwosus started in the early hours of yesterday when their residential home in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos, was attacked by gunmen who heartlessly took away the mother of four in a speed boat through the Amuwo Odofin canal.

The hoodlums were said to have stormed the neighbourhood in a boat through the canal directly facing the community. The street on which the Nwosus’ house is located is parallel to the long stretch of the canal which separates Festac Town and Amuwo Odofin. It runs through Mile 2 and empties into the Lagos lagoon at Apapa.

The gunmen were said to have robbed a building next to the Nwosus’ before scaling the fence of his compound. Having succeeded, the men pulled down the burglary proof on one of the windows and gained entry into the apartment.

Mr. Nwosu said that when he started hearing constant banging on the window of his sitting room, he went to the kitchen to check what was amiss. “When the banging continued, I realised that it was happening in the palour. Then I saw them jumping into the living room and instantly pointed their guns at me. Three of them were in the palour at that time. One of them was wielding an AK 47 rifle, one a pistol, while the third was having a sledge hammer with which they pulled down the burglary proof.

“Immediately, they started shouting: ‘Bring the money! Bring the money!’ There and then, I started pleading with them that there was no money in the house. But they persisted. Then they forced me to lie face down on the floor; they began stepping on me and hitting me. In the process, I sustained injuries on my lips.

“At that point, the noise of the encounter woke up the children, who rushed to the palour and began screaming, ‘daddy, daddy!’ Then, the gun men herded them into their room and locked them all up. Instantly, the children obeyed them and stopped screaming.

“Then, they went for my wife and again screaming: ‘Where is the money? Where is the money and the jewelry too!’ They took her to all the rooms, and began ransacking everywhere. When they could not get anything, they returned to the palour, took a scarf and blindfolded me. They told me to get up and follow them. Then as they were going out, they changed their mind and took me back to the palour and then asked my wife to go and dress up because she was putting on a pyjamas at that time. Again, they told me to lie face down still blindfolded. Then suddenly, I heard people shouting ‘ole, ole’ outside, and a gunshot followed. Later they shot at the people screaming. This was what I learnt afterwards.

“Realising that they might have left, I stood up and started searching for my wife. It was in the process that I discovered that the children were locked up in their room. Eventually I came out when I could not see my wife; then I was told by neigbours that four other men were outside waiting for the three that came inside the house. I was also told that they took my wife into a boat and sped off.

“The whole operation lasted for about 30 minutes. It began with the banging at the window at about 1.50am. At that point, I was even too confused to call anybody, not even the police.”

When asked if it was the case of kidnapping or robbery, he said: “It was probably robbery taken too far. They also robbed a neigbour who jumped over the fence and sustained some degree of injury. Even when we are under Okota Police jurisdiction, it was the police from Festac Division that came. The roads leading to our area is very bad.”

Nwosu said he called his wife’s relations in Festac and they were the ones that contacted the police at Festac Division but before the arrival of the policemen, the hoodlums had escaped taking his wife away.

Reacting to the abduction of Mr. Nwosu’s wife, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, said the incident was purely an armed robbery attack, judging by the manner the robbers operated. “The hoodlums robbed two other flats in the neigbourhood. They probably didn’t come specifically for Mr. Nwosu. But all the same, it was a worrisome situation that robbers will now abduct people if they don’t get anything to steal. It is another dimension which we are now studying.

“Crime is evolving; as it is evolving we too will be developing new strategies. I can assure the public that we will get to the root of the matter as we are going to deploy all our human and material resources to ensure that Mrs. Nwosu is rescued and the perpetrators arrested,” he assured.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director, Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Eric Osagie, has decried the kidnap of Mrs. Toyin Nwosu. Osagie, who prayed for the immediate return of the lady to her family hale and hearty, expressed dismay that journalists and members of their families had become objects of attacks in recent times.

He assured that the company would stand by the Nwosu family in their trying times and would continue to pray for that Mrs. Nwosu be freed immediately by her abductors and in good health too.

“As a company, we stand with our Deputy Managing Director and his entire family in this trying period. We are praying to God for her release. The spate of attacks on journalists in the country and their families is very worrisome,” Osagie said.

In its reaction, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), regreted the increasing rate of kidnapping of media professionals and members of their families. It said this was a clear signal that journalists were now being deliberately targeted as a result of the work they did.

It said in a statement signed by its National Secretary, Shuaibu Usman Leman: “We therefore view with much vexation and agony the kidnap in the early hours of Monday of Mrs. Oluwatoyin Nwosu, the wife of Mr. Steve Nwosu, former Editor, Daily Sun and Deputy Managing Director of the Sun Newspapers

“The abduction of Mrs. Nwosu from their home in Lagos is a sad reminder of the perilous nature of the journalism profession and the inability of the state to protect media professionals and other Nigerians who daily are being threatened by insecurity of life and property.

“While we all were heaving a sigh of relief after the release of abducted Vanguard columnist, Donu Kogbara, we are yet faced with another sad moment. This is completely reprehensible and unacceptable.

“We call on the security personnel to urgently secure the release of Mrs. Nwosu, without any harm to her person and strive harder towards ensuring the safety and security of all media workers and their families.”

It would be recalled that Monday’s incident would bring to three, the number of times the celebrated journalist and columnist had, had brushes with armed robbers. In December 2014, Mr. Nwosu was jolted from his sleep with the cold nozzle of a gun, pointed at him by dare-devil robbers who invaded his home in the wee hours of the morning.

The robbers, who had switched off the generating set powering the house and laid ambush, gained entry when Toyin, his wife came out to find out what made the generator to go off. She was escorted back into the house by the heavily-armed robbers who ransacked the house, making away with valuables.

•Rewritten from a Daily Sun report. Photo shows Mr. Nwosu with sympathisers who visited him yesterday.

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