Kidnappers of Kaduna school girls demand N50m

Kidnappers of the six female students and two staff of Engravers College, Kakau Daji, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state have demanded for a N50 million ransom.

ThisDay quoted an anonymous school source as saying that the kidnappers called in on Thursday at about 7:00pm to demand for the ransom.

“Yesterday in the evening, they called and said we should pay N50 million for release of the students and the two staff that they kidnapped,” the source said.

“But we pleaded with them that things were hard and we didn’t have that kind of money. They also said things were also hard for them.

“We begged them to collect N100,000, but the man laughed and said N100,000 is nothing. He said that he as a person can even dash somebody N100,000. This morning (Friday) they called again and we are still negotiating.”

The kidnappers had at about 12am on Thursday, invaded the school and took away the girls and the two staffers.

They were said to have shot and wounded a school security guard who attempted to confront them.

Meanwhile, parents have since evacuated their children from the school following the incident.

But the Director of the school, Mr. Samuel Amamchukwu, said the school was closed temporarily for two weeks as academic activities cannot continue while the six students and two staff are in captivity.

The school according to the Vice Principal (administration), Mr. Funom Giwa, was established in 2004 and had graduated 10 sets of students.

Spokesman of the Kaduna state police command, Yakubu Sabo, told ThisDay that the police had mobilised a manhunt for the criminals with the aim of apprehending them and rescuing the victims.

“Operations are still going on, our men are still in the bush, we are trailing them, it is a combine efforts (with other security agencies).

He said a combined team of police mobile anti-kidnapping squad, SARS and operatives of Operation Puff Adder were on a manhunt for the criminals.