The kidnapped cousin of President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Inengite Nitabai, may have to spend more days with his abductors as the hoodlums were said to have rejected the N30million ransom offered by his family for his release.
This coming at a time the newly constituted executive of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has constituted a three-man search party to assist security agents locate the whereabouts of the Otuoke chief.
Nitabai, said to be a former lecturer at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, was abducted penultimate Sunday at his Otuoke country home in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State by ten armed men.
The kidnapped chief is the traditional head of the compound from which President Jonathan hails from.
The abductors, it would be recalled, had contacted the victim’s family four days after he was whisked away, demanding a whooping sum of N500million as ransom to set him free.
The Tide gathered that Nitabai’s worried family had offered to pay the kidnappers N30million in order to secure his freedom, but the offer was rejected.
“They (kidnappers) rejected the N30million offer which they described as laughable, coming from a family linked to the President,” the source said.
Also, a security source, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed the development, saying, “we are aware that the family is negotiating with the kidnappers and that they are demanding N500million, which the family described as outrageous. They, instead, offered to part with N30million, which the kidnappers were said to have rejected.”
When contacted, the Bayelsa State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alex Akhigbe, denied knowledge of the development but merely said some progress has been made on the incident.
However, the IYC has described the action of the kidnappers as crime which the council would not condone, and urged the family not to negotiate or pay any ransom.
IYC said the three-man committee it set up to work with security agencies to fish out the kidnappers of Inengite Nitabai are making tremendous progress to secure his release.
Spokesman of the IYC, Eric Omare, who disclosed this to newsmen shortly after the inaugural meeting of the council at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa, said the identity of the three-man committee would not be disclosed for security reasons as serious progress has been made to free the septuagenarian.
Omare added that the committee has established contact with Nitabai’s captors, assuring that in no distance time, he would be released.
“In consonance with the position of the IYC, we have advised the relevant persons not to offer any ransom in order to effect the release of Mr President’s cousin because if we offer ransom, we are encouraging more kidnapping”, the IYC said.