Gunmen Abduct Two School Children in Calabar

Masked gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have taken into custody two pupils of the same parents in Calabar, Cross River State.The incident, according to sources happened in the early hours of Tuesday on Murtala Mohammed Way, where the four abductors armed with various weapons commandeered the car in which the children were travelling in

and took them hostage.
  The sobbing and estranged mother of the children, Mrs Juliet James, said she was conveying her two kids to school when the abductors came calling.

  Although the Cross River state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP John Umoh claimed that the incident has not been officially reported to state police command, their father, Mr Johnson James, disclosed that he had reported the matter to the Federal Housing Estate's divisional police office in Calabar.

  According to James, 'My wife was driving out of our street with our three children when some people in a Vento salon car suddenly accosted them.

  'Using their car to block my wife's car, the men came out pointing guns at my wife and asked for her phone. When she handed over her phone to them, they picked up our four-year old daughter.

  'Her elder brother, Emmanuel, 10, asked why they were taking his sister away, they picked him up as well. It was at that point that our third child, aged seven, ran out of the car and ran back to the house'

  The kidnappers had allegedly contacted the James' family at about noon on the same day and demanded for a N30 million ransom, but the abductors are yet to reach a compromise with the family in a bid to effect the children's release.