•Abductors demand N30m, threaten to kill victims

A heavily pregnant woman due to deliver soon has been kidnapped in Kogi State alongside eight other Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The nine Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses were on their way to Lokoja, the state capital, to attend an annual gathering known as Circuit Assembly when they were abducted on Kabba – Lokoja Road last Saturday, February 17, 2024.

Those kidnapped include two women, four men and two female students. They had taken off a Kingdom Hall at Kabba that Saturday morning in the hope of joining their brothers and sisters from other parts of the state for the spiritual banquet, only for abductors to cut short their journey.

Reports by Daily Trust and YouNewsNg said that the kidnappers have called to demand first for N30 million but later reduced it to N2.6 million after negotiation.

“They also threatened to kill two of them, and would tell where their corpse would be found, if the ransom is not paid today,” a distressed source who spoke with News Express this Wednesday morning disclosed.

Mr. Elupo Eliazer, husband to one of the victims, said the kidnappers have made contact with the family with their demands.

He said: “They called to demand first for N30 million but later reduced it to N2.6 million after negotiation.

“My wife and I were travelling to attend our church convention scheduled for Lokoja, but I decided to follow a different vehicle as the Toyota bus could not contain all of us, else I would have been in the car with her.”

Eliazer, who is a Person With Disability, said the vehicle his wife travelled with was ahead of the one he was in but that all the occupants of the bus were already marched in to the bush before the vehicle he boarded got to the spot.

He said the kidnappers had warned them not to inform or involve the police.

When contacted by newsmen, the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, William Aya, promised to find out and get back with the details later.