John Emmanuel, President of Abuja Newspapers Distributors Association, has been kidnapped.
He was reportedly kidnapped by bandits in a ‘one-chance’ vehicle in the Giri area of the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday night.
‘One-chance' is commonly used in Nigeria to refer to fraud or scam in Nigeria, especially when a group of criminals picks up passengers waiting for a taxi or bus, to rob or defraud them.
The PUNCH exclusively gathered that the kidnappers had contacted the family to demand a ransom of ₦15 million.
Emmanuel was reportedly abducted on the Giri Highway around 8 pm on Tuesday while on returning home.
The victim’s wife, Mrs Uche Emmanuel, on Wednesday, confirmed her husband’s abduction and that his abductors had demanded a ransom of ₦15 million for his freedom.
She said her husband “was in a public taxi on his way back home, unfortunately, the vehicle was a one-chance vehicle, and they’re demanding ₦15m before they’ll release him”.
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, said the incident had not been “reported at any of our stations for now”.
“Maybe the family has not contacted or reported to us (the police) yet; we can’t know what is not reported to us,” she added.