JAMB mum on kidnapped staff as family members, staff stew; abductors ask for ransom

A ransom may have been demanded for abducted staff running into tens of millions as family members of the kidnapped staff of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) are worried that the examination body is not making enough efforts to get the staff released. It has emerged that the agency is slow in responding because it seeks to protect its staff nationwide.
It was gathered that the hoodlums asked for N50 million, but this was not verified by JAMB management.
But grumbling family and staff are not impressed with the board’s position, wondering if the staff were family members of the top management, they would proffer such arguments.
Many were unimpressed with the attitude of the management which proceeded to inaugurate a newly completed General Services department building, within 24 hours of staff been marched into the forests of Kogi State, some without their drugs and even shoes.
“That attitude of acting as if their staff did not matter was callous and insensitive,” a source familiar with the developments said.
Meanwhile, the driver freed in Lokoja, and announced with glee by the Police, is said not to be the same one who took the board’s staff on the fateful trip, a senior staff, who did not want his name mentioned because of the sensitivity of the matter, said.
He said if the Police had bothered to check with the board, they would have discovered that it was a different person that was released.
The angry staff alleged that the freed driver was another person kidnapped months ago.
Up until Tuesday also, the board’s spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, was still not available for official comments, in what a source said is a deliberate ploy not give traction to the criminality.
It was learnt that the management is preferring to remain mum based on the advice of security agents they are depending upon to resolve the situation.
Family members, however, still remained worried over the health of those kidnapped, including one who was said to have had surgery recently. Another is said to be battling high blood pressure and diabetes.
“What makes it worse is that they were not able to carry their drugs with them as the abductors left all their personal belongings intact in the bus. Some even were forced into the bush barefoot,” a source said.
Recall that a few hours after the staff left Abuja last Sunday, they were abducted around Obajana, Kogi State, with the driver of the bus they took for the trip.
Unfortunately, a source said the staff opted for the road journey because they were not paid for flights to conduct the Mock JAMB examinations in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.