Armed men who kidnapped some Nigerian French language students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Sunday, have demanded a cumulative sum of N270 million as their ransom.
One of the students among those in the bus but succeeded in escaping, Dickson Oko, told DailyTrust that the kidnappers had reached out to the families of the kidnapped students, demanding N30 million ransom on each.
Oko, who sustained a gunshot wound during the attack, said he was recuperating but was devastated by the thought of his colleagues in captivity.
He told Daily Trust that despite the gunshot wound, he was among those that ran out of the bus, leaving his phone and other belongings.
He, however, said when he returned to the bus after the attack, his phones and those of others were no longer there.
Oko and the bus driver, Nuruddeen Mohammed, told Daily Trust that 12 of them were on the bus but nine students were kidnapped.
Also, a female relative of one of the kidnapped students told the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa Service monitored in Kaduna that the kidnappers had reached out to the family demanding N30 million per student.
She pleaded with the kidnappers to have mercy and release the victims, saying they were only students.
The driver narrated to Daily Trust how he and three other students escaped the grip of the bandits in the Kaduna-Abuja highway kidnap incident.
The students, who were on their way to the French Village in Lagos for their language immersion programme, were trapped at the Akilubu-Gidan Busa axis on the highway when gunmen blocked both lanes of the road and opened fire on motorists.
Meanwhile, the university has confirmed that eight people were kidnapped. But Mohammed, the driver, said he had 12 students in the bus – 10 females and two males.
