29th September 2025
The family of a newly called-to-the-bar lawyer, Peace Onyesom, and her sister, Gift Onyesom, who were kidnapped along the Okene-Auchi road on Friday, has disclosed that the abductors are demanding N40m ransom before they would be released.
This is just as the family appealed to the Federal Government to ensure the safe rescue of the victims.
Recall that the Nigerian Law School held its call-to-the-bar ceremony on September 23. Peace, who was among the new graduates, participated in the ceremony and was returning to Benin alongside her sister when they were kidnapped.
She narrated that after a while, one of her siblings, Gift, and the call was picked up by a man who identified as a police officer and informed them that she had been kidnapped.
Adaeze said, “About an hour after our youngest sibling called her, someone else picked up the call and said he was a policeman and that she had been kidnapped.
“The policeman said that they found her phone in the bus and that they had gone after the kidnappers.”
She noted that the kidnappers reached out to the family on Friday, demanding a sum of N100m, which they pleaded to be reduced.
Adaeze said, “When they (the kidnappers) contacted us on Friday evening, they told us that we should bring N100m, but we told them we could not get such an amount, and we pleaded with them. On Saturday, they called back and reduced it to N20m, but we told them we could only raise N3m, but they declined.
“After a while, they called us back to say that they were not collecting anything less than N20m for each person, which is N40m for the two of them. We appealed that it was only N7m that we could raise, but they did not agree.
“They called us this morning (Sunday) and allowed us to speak with our sisters who were pleading that we should raise money.”
Ada lamented that the situation had caused distress to the family and that they had resorted to selling property to raise the ransom.
She appealed to the authorities to ensure the safe rescue of their sisters.
Meanwhile, the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, in a post on his X page on Sunday, disclosed that eight of the abducted persons had been rescued.
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