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The kidnappers who held six Lagos school boys captive for over six weeks were actually promised amnesty before they agreed to release the boys.
Ondo State Governor, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), disclosed this at the weekend, explaining that the kidnappers were promised inclusion in the Federal Government amnesty programme as one of the agreements reached for the release of the children.
Akeredolu revealed this in a radio programme on Fresh FM, Ibadan. he said the government did not pay any ransom to the kidnappers.
He said that as soon as the Federal Government hinted him that the kids were hidden somewhere in the creeks of Ondo State, he assigned his deputy, who hailed from a riverine area in the state, to establish communication with the abductors, a move which he said, was quite a risky one.
The governor said that when he joined the discussion, the kidnappers complained that they were excluded in the amnesty programme launched for all militants in the Niger Delta region of the country.
He then promised to persuade the Federal Government to include them in the programme but made them realize danger of their criminal activities.
His words: “My deputy did a yeoman’s job and started a discussion with the abductors. We made them realize that they may have their problem with the government but we told them that we will report that to the Federal Government. People repose a lot of trust in our government. They have implicit trust in us. The young boys (kidnappers) have trust in us. We promised them we would persuade the Federal Government to include them in the amnesty programme. We did not pay any ransom. We will work with the Federal Government to make them surrender their arms.”