Reports say that the 32 train passengers in Edo State who were taken hostage asked their families for N20 million as a ransom.
Recall that 32 potential passengers were about to board a train for Warri in Delta State when herdsmen broke into the station and abducted the kidnapping victims.
Comrade Benson Odia, Executive Director of Esan Youth for Good Governance and Social Justice, revealed the ransom demand on Monday. He said the kidnappers had gotten in touch with the families of the victims and demanded N20 million for each victim.
Odia criticised the demand as absurd and urged the authorities to step up efforts to free the 31 missing people who are still in the custody of their kidnappers.
He added that the director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation and the minister of transportation were both at Igueben to assess the situation.
He added that the authorities had promised to use a helicopter on Tuesday in an effort to find the location of the victims’ holding area in the bush.
“I can confirm that the kidnappers have asked for a total of N620 million, or N20 million. “This is ridiculous, and I’m not sure how impoverished people will be able to raise so much money,” complained Odia.
Earlier, the Edo State Government said that six of the 31 people who had been taken had been set free.
Chris Osa Nehikhare, the commissioner for communication and orientation in the state of Edo, made this announcement on Monday during a press conference.
The commissioner reassured them that the search and rescue team had increased its rescue operations at the time.
Nehikhare said, “We are happy to report that six (6) people have been rescued after Governor Godwin Obaseki gave the order that the kidnappers who attacked the train at Igueben on Saturday be lured out of hiding and the people who were taken should be rescued.”
A 65-year-old man, a nursing mother and her infant, a 6-year-old girl, and two siblings, who are 2 and 5 years old, make up the group of 6.
The PPRO of the Edo Police Command, Chidi Nwabuzor, said he will verify the truth of the story when approached about the ransom demand.
