Nigerien kidnappers demand $100,000 for Ogun schoolgirl

A Niger Repubic-based kidnapping syndicate has demanded the payment of $100, 000 as ransom for the release of its 15-year-old victim, Precious Okoro.

The victim’s father, Nwaigwe, explained that Precious was kidnapped around Songotedo, in the Ajah area of Lagos State, where she had boarded a commercial vehicle en route to her school in Ikenne, Ogun State.


 He said he never knew his daughter had been abducted until two weeks later when the school management contacted him to say Precious had not reported in schoolj
. He explained that he reported the matter to the police at the Ajah Police Division, where he was asked to exercise patience. He said the cops initially thought she fled to a boyfriend’s house. Nwaigwe, a trader, said he was later contacted by the kidnappers, who informed him that his daughter was in Niamey, the Niger Republic capital.

 He said, “My daughter, who was on holiday, was returning to her school in Ikenne Communty College, Ikene, Ogun State. On Sunday, May 25, 2014, she boarded a bus at the motor park in my presence and I bid her farewell.

 “I thought she was already in school until the principal called me and said the school was about writing exams and nobody knew her whereabouts. “I quickly informed the police at Ajah, and the Divisional Police Officer told me to be calm and wait because it was possible she went to a boyfriend’s house and they probably wanted to fleece me. “One fateful morning in August, I saw an international line and the kidnappers said they were calling from Niamey in the Niger Republic, adding that if I wanted to see my daughter alive, I should pay them $100,000.”