By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON, Kaduna.
A Kaduna Pastor, Joshua Kantiyok alongside his friend, Elder Yakubu Samaila have been kidnapped by heavily armed gunmen, suspected to be herdsmen at a farm in Kaduna.
The ugly incident was said to have occurred at about 2:10pm on Friday along the Kaduna-Abuja Highway.
When the residence of one of the kidnapped men was visited on Sunday night, Reverend John Matthew who spoke on behalf of the families of the kidnapped men said that the kidnappers initially demanded for ransom of N30million, N15m for each victim.
He explained that they were kidnapped while harvesting maize at their farm where they were in company of nine assistants helping them with the harvesting.
“The boys who were with them were nine and they said each of them had one of the kidnappers pointing a gun at his head while they laid faced down, suggesting the kidnappers came in large numbers”.
When asked if the Police had been informed of the development, he said that they were informed the very day it happened and had since swung into action with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Sabon Tasha Division leading the investigations.
It was gathered that the kidnappers set an initial deadline of Saturday for the ransom to be paid, but later reduced the ransom to N10m, N5m each.
While at the residence of one of the victims, the kidnappers put a call through, requesting for Airtel vouchers of N2,000 from the families of the victims.
It was gathered that earlier same day, they had requested for same vouchers worth N4,000.
Pastor Kantiyok who is married with four children is a clergy at ECWA Church Kakuri, Kaduna, while Elder Samaila who is married with three kids is a Mechanical Engineer.
