by ‘Jola Sotubo

Perhaps after hearing of concerns documented in the news on Monday at their silence , like clockwork, the kidnappers of Edo State Judge, Daniel Iyobosa Okungbowa have spoken out.

The abductors contacted the family yesterday and made their demands known. According to reports, Justice Okungbowa’s kidnappers want a ransom of N200M paid to them before they can release him.

A family source reportedly said that the family members have held a meeting to discuss and seek the best ways and means of handling the situation.

Although, the source could not state with certainty whether the family was planning to involve the Nigeria Police in its dealings with the kidnappers, it was gathered, however, that the family now have little or no confidence in the police after their initial reaction to news of Okungbowa’s abduction.

It will be recalled that the police command had initially claimed that Justice Okungbowa was not kidnapped, but that he was missing.

Sources also learnt that the wife of the judge, whose name could not be obtained as at the time of filing this report, had been in coma since she received news of her husband’s kidnap. It was also learnt that another agenda of the meeting held by the family yesterday was how to manage the wife’s deteriorating health since the kidnap incident.

But efforts made to confirm the latest information from the state police command was unsuccessful as the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Funso Adebanjo and the state police spokesman, Mr. Moses Eguavoen, could not be reached on their cell phones as at the time of filing this report.

Justice Okungbowa, who is presently the chairman of Edo State Local Government Election Tribunal, was reported by his family to have been kidnapped around Ekpoma last Wednesday on his way to a sitting of the Ekpoma Division of Edo State High Court.

Meanwhile, speaking on Monday in a televised chat with selected journalists in Edo State, Governor Adams Oshiomhole had urged the media to exercise restraint in the reporting of kidnap cases in the state.

The governor is yet to sign a bill passed into law by the Edo State House of Assembly, prescribing death penalty and life imprisonment for kidnapping in the state. Titled; “A Law to Prohibit the Act of Kidnapping and Other Matters Connected Thereto,” the state house of Assembly on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 unanimously passed the bill, urging the governor to sign it into law in order to stem the spate of kidnapping in the state.