Late on Thursday evening, it was revealed that the abductors of five pupils and four staff members from the Apostolic Faith Church Primary and Secondary School in Emure Local Government Area of Ekiti have decreased the ransom for their victims from M100m to N15m.

The gun-wielding kidnappers had on Monday waylaid the school bus conveying the pupils and staff to Eporo-Ekiti, outskirts of Emure, headquarters of Emure Local Government Area, and abducted them.

The kidnappers later reached out to the families of their victims with a demand of N100m as ransom for the release of their captives.

However, a source close to one of the victims’ family, who crave anonymity disclosed to Vanguard that the ransom had been reduced after negotiations with the kidnappers.

The source added that the kidnappers threatened to kill the victims if the ransom was not paid on time.

“What we need now is money to secure the release of our children and wives because I just had a conversation with the kidnappers. Today, they call four to five times. They said the ransom is now N15m.

“We are currently begging them to take N4m but they insisted they want 15m. And that we should hasten up with the payment because the children are already weak. They even threatened to kill them if the ransom was not paid on time.

The source also revealed that the families have been able to raise N3m but is still a far cry from the kidnappers’ demand

He added that the families are disturbed by the agony and cries of the children each time they are given phone to talk to them, adding that the children should not be allowed to too long in the forest.