Two school children kidnapped in Calabar, kidnappers demand N30million

It seems to be a season for kidnappers as they hold to ransom both the young and old in different states and sectors. The recent one was the abduction of two school children along the Murtala Mohammed Highway in Calabar, Cross River State, yesterday morning.

Eyewitness account claimed that the three gunmen were masked, ” it was only the driver that did not cover his face”
The ugly incident happened as their mother, Mrs. Juliet Eko James was conveying them to school at about 7.30am on Tuesday morning.
In a telephone chat with the press, the father of the kidnapped children, Mr. Johnson Eko James, narrated how it all happened. “My wife and our three children were driving out of our street into the highway and suddenly, some people in a Vento salon car accosted her, using their car to block my wife’s car. They came out pointing a gun at my wife and asked for her mobile telephone. When she handed over her phone, they then picked up our four-year-old daughter. The elder brother, Emmanuel, 10 years old questioned why they were taking his sister away, they picked him up as well. It was at that point that our second child, a seven-year-old, ran out of the car heading back to the house.”

The civil servant who works with Cross River State civil service confirmed that he had already made a formal complaint to the Police command at the Federal Housing Estate Police division in Calabar.
However, the kidnappers called him later at noon, demanding for N30million ransom or risk t lose his two children.
Mr. James lamented that despite his wife’s appeals to the dare-devil kidnappers to take their car, a Toyota Sienna, in place for their children, heartless armed men insisted and left with the children.

When contacted to confirm the incident, the State’s Police spokesman, John Umoh said he was yet to get any report from the Divisional Police Officer of the police station but, “I will get back to you as soon as I get the details”.