Kidnappers demand N50m ransom for Adamawa United bus driver

Chairman, Adamawa United, Emmanuel Zira, says the abductors of the club’s bus driver have made a demand of N50m for his release.

The Nigeria Professional Football League side were attacked by gunmen on Friday night while on their way to Lagos for their match-day 11 clash against MFM.

“The abductors already reached out to us and they made a demand of N50m ransom for the release of the bus driver. We hope for his safe return,” Zira told SUNDAY PUNCH.

Team manager of Adamawa United, Pwavi Moline, said their attackers stopped them around the Benin bypass on the Benin-Ore Expressway at about 6:30pm on Friday, stripped them of their belongings, before abducting their driver.

“Yesterday (Friday), we were on our way to Lagos, when we got to Benin bypass around 6:30pm, some people attacked us. They are Fulani because we could hear them,” Moline told SUNDAY PUNCH.

“They stopped us, collected our money and also collected some players’ phones. They didn’t collect mine because I hid it under the seat. They also kidnapped our driver and took him into the bush.

“We thought they would release our driver, so we waited till around 11:30pm, but they didn’t release him. It was passersby who saw us that reported to soldiers in the town. When the soldiers came, they told us there was no point staying there.

“We went into the town and early in the (Saturday) morning, we went with the soldiers to the scene, entered the bush and searched everywhere, but we did not see our driver. Then we called home and told them what happened.”

The Adamawa TM, however, said his players would honour their game against MFM despite the attack.

“We are already in Lagos for our match. We will play tomorrow (Sunday), because they didn’t harm the players, everybody is safe. They only collected their feeding money and their phones, but they didn’t touch anybody,” Moline added. Punch