By our reporter 8.10.2026
The mother of a youth corper who was kidnapped alongside his colleagues in Imo State, has revealed that her family paid N6m to have their son released.
According to the woman who was speaking on News Central Television the kidnappers had demanded ₦50 million for each victim before settling for ₦6 million for her son.
“Initially, they asked us to pay ₦50 million per head. We asked whether the amount was for all of them, but they insisted that no, it was for each person. Later, we started begging them to take ₦500,000. But they said no and started scaring us,” she said.
“Three days ago, they called and said we should pay ₦15 million. We kept begging them that all we had was ₦5.5 million. They said no and insisted on ₦6 million. So, it’s that ₦6 million we paid.”
The woman said her family was later informed that the ransom had been delivered and her son released.
“It was the brother who called Wednesday to say that they had handed the ransom to the kidnappers and that they had released our son. We also spoke to the boy,” she said.
She said the ordeal has traumatised her family: “Since he was kidnapped, I have been stooling. I couldn’t sleep either. But I was relieved when I heard they had been released. It was as though the chains all over me were loosened,” she said.
Her husband added that ransom was paid for the release of the youths: “It was we parent that contributed the money. Ours was 6million some people own was 5 million. But ours was more than some people own too. So we the parent met at a place in Ibadan to put the money together and we appointed about two to three people to fly down to Imo state and we still changed the money to dollar because that was the request of the kidnappers,” he said.
Twenty youths heading for the National Youth Service Corps orientation camp in the east and south when they were kidnapped on October 1 along the Ontisha-Oweri highway.
All 20 youths have been released following what the police said was a joint security rescue mission. But there were no arrests of the criminal gang, nor their identity revealed, breeding speculations ransom might have been paid.