Associates allege paying N100 million ransom for release of BoA MD (Videos)
The sum of N100 million was paid to secure the release of the managing director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, some associates have revealed.
This is as the abductors, posing more like members of Boko Haram than the bandits they were said to be, in a video clip that has gone viral, claimed that no ransom was paid and that they released him in sympathy and “because of the month of Ramadhan”, some sources said it was not true.
Recall that the BoA MD was released on Wednesday after 10 days in captivity following his abduction alongside hundreds of passengers of the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train on March 28.
READ ALSO: Abuja-Kaduna Train Attack: Abducted BoA MD regains freedom from captivity (Video)
According to the source, as is the modus operandi of kidnappers, they sent the family the video of the torturous conditions of the captives in order to prise the ransom from loved ones and Alwan in the video kept telling his family to ‘give them whatever amount they want’. So the family gave them what they insisted on… that is N100 million.”
According to the source, the kidnappers first asked the family to take the money to a forest in Katsina on Tuesday before asking them to make a long turn to another forest in Kaduna.
The source added that after the family’s representative journeyed for hours in the bush, the gunmen appeared fully armed in their hundreds and collected the money.
The money was wrapped in cartoons of noodles with some creates of eggs as a form of camouflage.
Debunking the terrorists’ reasons for releasing him, Malam Musa Aminu, a current affairs commentator, told Neptune Prime “why didn’t they release a whole family where you have the husband, wife and four children if it’s out of pity or because of Ramadhan?”
Malam Aminu, therefore, concluded that it’s because money has changed hands.
Watch the videos below:
