In a desperate bid to get money from their victim, militants who abducted the relation of the Rivers State Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association have backed down on their initial demand for N10m ransom.
Our correspondent on Wednesday learnt that the kidnappers now demand only N2m from petroleum products dealer to release his cousin, Mr. Sitto Barabe.
Barabe, who has just finished from the Rivers State College of Education, was abducted on Monday night at Woji, a suburb of Port Harcourt.
Speaking to our correspondent, the IPMAN boss, Mr. Ben Dimkpa, said, The kidnappers have been calling me since they abducted my cousin and asking me to pay a ransom of N10m.�
When he insisted that he could not afford the money, he said, the kidnappers reduced the ransom to N2m.
Asked whether he would give in to the demand of the abductors, Dimkpa said, I have told them that I do not have that amount of money.�
On what might have led to his cousins abduction, he said, I dont know because I dont think I have wronged anybody to the extent of one thinking of kidnapping me or any member of my family.�
Meanwhile, the Joint Task Force on the Niger Delta on Wednesday said that the recent abduction of a man by suspected militants in Port Harcourt did not mean that its operation has failed.
The spokesperson of the group, Major Sagir Musa, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that with the magnitude of crisis that had engulfed the state before troops were deployed, it was possible for the militants to carry out little skirmishes.
But Musa assured residents of Port Harcourt and its environs that the JTF was alive to its responsibility and that very soon, kidnapping and other forms of crimes associated with cultism would be wiped out.
He said that though soldiers were deployed to the streets, it was not possible to push troublemakers out of the state within a few days, noting that with dedication on the part of the troops, permanent peace would return to Rivers State.
He said, It is possible for one or two crisis to happen, but we are gradually moving towards pushing them out of the state.�
Sep132007