Kidnappers of Augusta Douglas-Ayam,
elder sister to the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Research,
Documentation and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas, on Thursday opened
communication with the family.
A family source told our correspondent
that Douglas-Ayam’s captors had contacted her husband and demanded N500m
to free the 48-year-old woman.
A nine-man gang, dressed in military
uniform, abducted Douglas-Ayam on Monday night at her shop in Ogbia
town, headquarters of Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State,
before the gunmen sped away with her in a speedboat stationed at Ogbia
waterside.
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But four days after keeping the family in suspense, the kidnappers contacted the woman’s husband and asked for N500m.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, said
efforts by the family to contact the kidnappers again through the number
they used to call the husband had not been successful.
Another family source said the amount the kidnappers demanded was outrageous.
He said, “We tried to call the number
they used in calling the husband but it did not go through. The amount
they asked for is outrageous. Where do they expect us to get that kind
of money?
“I told them that such money could only be sourced from the Central Bank.”
He, however, refused to give further details on the telephone conversation the husband had with the kidnappers.
The family had, in a statement on
Wednesday, lamented that Douglas-Ayam’s kidnap was giving them concern
because of her poor state of health.
Head of the Douglas family, Romeo, who
signed the statement, appealed to the kidnappers to release her
unconditionally on humanitarian grounds.
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