Kidnappers of a lawyer and her sister demand N40m ransom for their release

Monday, September 29, 2025 - Abductors of a newly called-to-the-bar lawyer, Peace Onyesom, and her sister, Gift Onyesom, are demanding N40m ransom before they would be released.

The family disclosed this in an interview with Punch on Sunday, September 28. 

Recall that Peace and other new lawyers were returning after the call-to-the-bar ceremony held on September 23 when they got kidnapped along the Okene-Auchi road on Friday. 

Speaking to the publication, the victims’ sister, Adaeze Onyesom, said that Gift had been in contact with another sibling until she became incommunicado during the journey.

She narrated that after a while, one of her siblings called and it was answered by a man who identified as a police officer and informed them that she had been kidnapped

“About an hour after our youngest sibling called her, someone else picked up the call and said he was a policeman and that she had been kidnapped. The policeman said that they found her phone in the bus and that they had gone after the kidnappers,” she narrated. 

She noted that the kidnappers reached out to the family on Friday, demanding a sum of N100m, which they pleaded to be reduced.

"When they (the kidnappers) contacted us on Friday evening, they told us that we should bring N100m, but we told them we could not get such an amount, and we pleaded with them. On Saturday, they called back and reduced it to N20m, but we told them we could only raise N3m, but they declined.

"After a while, they called us back to say that they were not collecting anything less than N20m for each person, which is N40m for the two of them. We appealed that it was only N7m that we could raise, but they did not agree.

"They called us this morning (Sunday) and allowed us to speak with our sisters who were pleading that we should raise money.”

Ada lamented that the situation had caused distress to the family and that they had resorted to selling property to raise the ransom.

She appealed to the authorities to ensure the safe rescue of their sisters.

Meanwhile, the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed that eight of the abducted persons had been rescued while concerted efforts are in top gear to ensure the safe rescue of the remaining four victims.