Kidnappers Of Oronto Douglas’ Sister Demand N500m

 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.
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.

October 18, 2013