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A N50m ransom was paid to secure my freedom – Governor Bala Mohammed’s brother speaks after kidnap,

Published

5 years ago

April 22, 2020

Track News

TRACKING___Alhaji Adamu Mohammed Duguri, the elder brother of Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has revealed that a N50 million ransom was paid to secure his freedom.

Duguri who spent 13 days in kidnappers’ den, said security operatives played no part in his release. The 65- year- old retired Customs Officer revealed that his abductors who initially demanded for N350 million before agreeing to accept N50 million, were well educated and coordinated that they could not be traced by security agents.

He further disclosed that he had to make them understand that his family members are the ones to secure his release, not the State Government.

“They said they have not kidnapped somebody as big as l am. You know l was a uniformed man before. They know l knew all what they were doing. They felt l was a threat to them and were demanding N350 million, which l said when you look for that kind of money l will continue to be a liability for you here.

“I told them l have acclimatised already. I eat well. The only thing was l didn’t sleep well because it was on a mat all of us were sleeping. They gave me three pillows and supplied me apples with a bottle of maltina, anything l wanted they gave me.

”l made it clear to them if you are looking for money from Bauchi State they don’t have. Or are you thinking you want to demand for more money so that Bauchi State governor will bring money and you will release me and impeach him? Because they told me there was a kind of problem in the State Assembly which was centred on whether the governor would remove money from Bauchi coffers and release me.

”My abductors were educated with western education, not only religious. They refused to talk to avoid being traced. They said the moment you talk to somebody now, they can easily be trailed. They knew what they were doing. They had to take my voice, they would later take it to Jos, relay it to somebody in Kaduna. That person then send it to Kano before calling my family. That was what they did.

”To avoid being tracked, they went to Gombe, not Jos this time because of the anti- tracking device. To get the anti- tracking on took time because l wouldn’t have stayed there long. They were even complaining that l stayed too long with them and that they were afraid.”

“On the issue of ransom , they said they would come down to N100 million but i insisted that nobody will give them that amount of money. They however suggested that if they release me, they can collect the remaining amount later but i asked them how will they collect the money and I told them it won’t work because if you come to my house l will shout.

“So we gave them the ransom but it was not up to N100 million, It was about N50 million.”