Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
The kidnappers of two children of one Mr. James (surname withheld) in Ndi-Uduma village, Oso-Edda in Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have demanded the sum of N5million as ransom before they could release them, Daily Sun learnt.
The demand came about 10 days after the hoodlums whisked the children aged between 5 and 7 away after their parents had fled for safety.
That fateful night, on June 14, at about 11pm, the hoodlums numbering four reportedly stormed their residence, shooting sporadically.
Daily Sun gathered that the hoodlums shattered the louvers with bullets, set some of their properties ablaze before inflicting the kids’ paternal grandfather with grave machete cuts.
At the moment, the 104-year-old grandfather of the victims is battling for survival at Matter Misericodae Hospital, Afikpo in Afikpo North council area of the state.
That abduction came barely five days after an angry mob in the neighbouring Amoso-Nta village allegedly set the vehicle belonging to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Ebonyi State Police Command on fire.
Five SARS officials, it was alleged by sources who craved anonymity for fear of police harassment, had allegedly gone to the community in the dead of the night that Sunday to arrest a suspected Indian hemp merchant but were mistaken for criminals by local vigilante.
One of them narrated: “The villagers recorded a kidnap incident last year. So, they didn’t know that SARS came to arrest a villager. The man raised an alarm. On getting to that place, the SARS men were not on their uniform and they didn’t come with their official vehicle.
“So, the villagers mistook them for kidnappers and attacked them. They pursued after them. Incidentally, their vehicle stock in the sand and getting to that point, they set the car ablaze that midnight and the SARS people ran away”, he alleged.
Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP Loveth Odah, confirmed to newsmen in Abakaliki that the kidnappers had demanded the sum of N5 million to free their abductees.
“One of the family members told me that someone called him on phone with a hidden number saying “you witch, before you get your children you have to pay N5 million.
“The man confirmed to me that he sold a land with huge amount of money and that the money has finished. So, it might be the people that saw the money that may have done this evil.
“There was no life lost but the hoodlums shot at glasses. A man of 104 years was macheted. That man is in the hospital now. He is a grandfather to the children”, Odah stated.