A woman and her three month-old baby were kidnapped from their Port Harcourt, Rivers State home yesterday.
They were abducted just as the wife of a Bayelsa State lawmaker, Dorothy Otele, who was kidnapped two weeks ago, regained her freedom.
The woman, whose husband, Samuel Ejiogu, is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) councillorship candidate in Etche Local Government Area and her child were taken to an unknown place.
After kidnapping them, the criminals demanded a N20 million ransom from Ejiogu. They said they would harm the mother and child if he refused to pay.
When Ejiogu could not drop the N20 million, the hoodlums reduced it to N5 million.
Speaking shortly after the abduction, Ejiogu told reporters in Port Harcourt that the abductors called him to say that he “should cooperate” if he wanted his family back and that “they first asked me to make N20 million available within two hours.”
Two hours later, they called to inform him that they had reduced their demand to N10 million and that it was reasonable and small enough for him to produce. Ejiogu said he told them that he did not have that kind of money
Ejiogu added: “After some time, they called back to say that the new amount being asked for is N5 million naira but I still told them that I cannot afford such money that I am not a rich man in any sense of the word.
“All I am begging them is to release my wife and the child, at least for the sake of the three- month old baby who cannot adapt to rough environment and unprotected from mosquitoes.”