A five-year-old nursery two pupil, Jonathan Suleiman, who was kidnapped in Okene, Kogi state, on March 7, 2016, by armed gunmen along Federal College of Education Okene, on his way to school with his sister and father’s driver, needs all possible help to reunite him with his family.
Sources close to the family disclosed that the kidnappers have called the family twice, seeking a ransom of N50 million.
The four gunmen were reported to have used a cross bar in front of Ajoboloko Street in Eika-Adagu community to block the car. “They have called twice, on the 9th (Wednesday) and this Saturday, 12th.
“FC Okene is on the road between Okene and Lokoja, on the Lokoja-Abuja road. The father lectures in FC Okene, and therefore lives close to that institute.
“The driver was taking the son and the daughter to school on that Monday morning from the house, which is just like 100 metres off the main road. Four gunmen hijacked them close to the main road.
“The daughter was able to run away, but they went with the boy (Jonathan), the driver and the car,” a family source told TheCable by phone.
The driver claimed he was released by the gunmen, who took the boy and told him to face the main road as they drove off the car.
The police, who have been intimated of the kidnap, eventually found the vehicle abandoned some kilometres away from the point of kidnap, with no information on the child.
Due to the nature of the incident the parents of the children are not ‘getting immediate feedback’ on the matter, and there’s no news of his return yet.
The little boy’s father who is also a zonal pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Okene, had earlier described the kidnap of his son as ‘devastating’, urging security agencies to help with the rescue.
The family remains buried in rounds of fasting and prayer for the return of the child, but the kidnappers have stayed largely incommunicado.
