Parents of the kidnapped Apostolic Faith Group of Schools Emure-Ekiti in Emure LGA, are glad to have their children back home after five days of agony, but they continue to feel the impact of the traumatising experience.
Five children and four teachers were hijacked and kidnapped by gunmen while being transported back home last Tuesday, they were released on Sunday by 3.00am, with Ekiti State governor Abiodun Oyebanji making big statements about arresting the kidnappers who allegedly killed the school bus driver and burnt his corpse.
Some of the parents who spoke anonymously narrated how the kidnappers demanded for a N100m ransom and how they rallied round to raise N15m, which the gunmen accepted after prolonged negotiations.
“The kidnappers insisted on collecting N15 million on Saturday, and we rallied around the communities, including our people outside the country, to raise the ransom money. They even collected a cartoon of tin milk, black bullet, fried rice with chicken, soft and energy drinks and tramadol from us.
“We were asked to take the money and the items to a bush in Ondo state, a farmstead called Ago Paanu, at about 7:00 p.m. It was between Oba Akoko and Owo. Before they could release them, they confirmed the money and those items. We walked through the bush till around 1:00 a.m. when we saw the victims.”
Another parent who spoke in the hospital where the victims were receiving treatment said, “The kidnappers were calling that we should hurry up. They said we should meet them at Ikare Junction. I wondered how come it was Ikare junction when they took the children at Eporo.”
She added, “When we got to Ikare Junction, they said we should buy food, so we went to buy rice and meat. We were about to get to the waterworks when they called that we should turn back, and then the kidnappers described a road that only big vehicles could pass.
“We decided that all of us should not go there so that they would not think that we came with policemen that could make them injure the abductees with them” and “when we told them we were on the bush path, they said only two persons should come and threatened to waste the children if we did not comply.
“The driver of the vehicle and one person continued far into the forest and drove back,” she said. “They later trace the kidnappers to drop the money and the food. On collecting the money and food, they released the children. They used motorbikes to bring the kidnapped persons to the road. It was then they called us to bring the vehicle to convey them.”
“The kidnappers collected N15 million. We (parents and families) contributed N4 million, and people came to our aid by contributing the rest. Those in the markets also made donations.”
However, Ekiti State police spokesperson Sunday Abutu neither confirmed nor denied if any ransom was paid: “What matters is that the school children are back safely with their teachers,” he told Peoples Gazette
