Lagos school kidnap: Anxiety as abductors reject N2m ransom offer, relocate victims

Indication emerged yesterday that the six Senior Secondary School students who were abducted at the Lagos Model Collage, Igbonla, Epe, 11 days ago, have been relocated to another camp outside Lagos and Ogun creeks.

The kidnappers had given parents of the abducted students Tuesday last week deadline to pay N20 million ransom for the release of each of the students, threatening to relocate them if their demand was not met.

On the expiration of the deadline, three members of the gang who had gone to survey the waterways prior to the planned relocation were arrested in Benin, the Edo state capital, by operatives of  the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, last Tuesday

But Vanguard gathered that the relocation of the student was done at the early hours of yesterday through a new route in the creeks between the border of Lagos and Ogun states. Aside, earlier threat to relocate the students, another major reason for the relocation as gathered was dwindling food supply to the camp.

Yesterday’s relocation was the second time the abducted students would be moved from one  kidnappers den to another. The first relocation was done upper  weekend, two days after the abduction.

Policemen comprising those from the Lagos State Police command, Marine Unit and the IGP Intelligent Team who stormed the first camp where the students were kept, engaged some kidnappers found at the camp in a gun duel.

In the process,two boats belonging to the militants  were sunk, while some gang members  managed to escape. However when checks were conducted round the camp, the students were not found. There were reportedly indications that they were moved out few hours before the operatives’ arrived.

Meanwhile, Vanguard was informed that a parent of one of the victims, who was contacted at the early hours of Saturday by the kidnappers, was asked to bring his own part of ransom. The parent, as reliably gathered, was asked to take the money to a location at Odogunyan area of Ikorodu at a specified time.

However on reaching the designated point,the caller changed the collection point four times without showing up. The parent who went with N2 million, as reliably gathered, was asked to come the following day to another location in Shagamu, with an instruction to put the same cloth he wore.

Again, he reportedly waited close to six hours without any sign of anyone coming to pick the money. Vanguard