By Amos Tauna
Joshua Musa, a 47-year-old man, has been killed by kidnappers in Gegu-Beki Chiefdom of the Kotonkarfe area of Kogi State after collecting a N750,000 ransom from his family at Manyare community.
A family source said the incident happened after Musa had been in captivity on Saturday.
According to the source, the family tried and was able to raise N750,000 after negotiation with the abductors that earlier demanded N5 million.
He stated, “after presenting the N750,000 to the kidnappers, they called again demanding another N850,000.”
He explained that the kidnappers called that they were aware of the N45,000 kept aside, hence, the family should bring another fresh N850,000 before the victim would be set free.
He noted that they were shocked about how the kidnappers knew that there was an extra N45,000 that was reserved to take care of the victim after he might have regained freedom, saying that they then threatened to kill the victim if the family failed to pay the N850,000 after 24 hours.
The source said they killed the victim on Saturday evening and called the family to come and pick up the corpse at a place, stressing that they mobilised to the forest with vigilantes and brought the corpse back home and buried it.
ASP Williams Ovye Ayah, the spokesman of the Kogi State Police Command, is yet to confirm the incident.
