Ekiti terrorists flogging schoolchildren, using own phones to call parents
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Families of the schoolchildren kidnapped in Ekiti on Monday say they have been able to raise only N450,000 of the N100 million demanded by the abductors, according to sources, and the terrorists are applying pressure by flogging the children.
The criminals use their own phones to call the parents and the numbers could easily be used to locate them on Global Positioning System (GPS) if the security agencies actually want to do their job of protecting lives and properties.
Gabriel Adesanya, proprietor of Apostolic Faith Group of Schools, Emure Ekiti, lamented the kidnapped pupils and staff members of the school are being subjected to a series of maltreatment by their abductors.
He also said
- Whenever the terrorists call the parents, the children are flogged and heard crying in the background.
- The kidnappers insist on the N100 million ransom they demanded on Tuesday and threaten they would take drastic actions against the schoolchildren and the other victims.
“The kidnappers have started to maltreat the abductees and it is causing a series of problems right now. They called the parents of the pupils who were abducted and the husband of one of the women,” Adesanya lamented.
“We were told that during their calls, they heard how they were flogging the children and the way they were crying to call the attention of the parents.
“They also threatened them to provide the ransom as early as possible or they would do and undo. They have called close to five relatives so far.
“They called the mother of two of the kidnapped pupils and asked how much she had gotten so far, but she replied that she did not have anything yet. The husband of the female worker they called said his wife complained that they were maltreating her and the children.”
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Kidnappers can be located through GPS
Adesanya explained the kidnappers use their phones and not those of their victims, per The PUNCH.
“Those that were called discovered that it was not the phones of the abductees that they were using. They were using different numbers to call.”
Gunmen on January 28 attacked a bus on the Emure-Ekiti-Iporo Ekiti Road conveying home more than 25 pupils after closing hours.
Boje Olanireti, Principal of the secondary section of the groups of schools, confirmed five of the pupils on the bus were taken away.
She said the schoolchildren were being taken to Iporo Ekiti when the tyre of the bus was shot at by terrorists who abducted five of the children and four workers of the school.
The abductions took place on the same day gunmen killed two Ekiti monarchs – the Onimojo of Imojo, Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Babatunde Ogunsakin – and the Alara of Ara Ekiti, Adebayo Fatoba, narrowly escaped.
The traditional rulers were returning from a function in Kogi when their vehicles ran into kidnappers operating on the highway between Ipao and Oke Ako in Ikole Council in Ekiti.