The Director of Public Affairs of ABU, Mallam Auwal Umar, confirmed the development to Punch Metro on the telephone on Sunday.
Umar said the victims regained their freedom on Saturday.
Asked if ransom was paid by the families, Umar said, “We don’t want to go into that. Honestly, I don’t know; but all that I can confirm to you is that they have been released. They were released last night (Saturday).”
A relative of one of the students, Julius Mutum, also confirmed the release in a tweet.
He wrote, “Some of the #ABU9 including my sister have just regained their freedom. Strictly by family efforts. Thank you @TheAbusite for lending your voice when everyone, including govt and security agents, didn’t care.”
The students, who were from the Department of French, were travelling to Lagos for a programme at the Nigerian French Language Village, Badagry, when they were abducted along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway by gunmen.
One of the students, Dickson Oko, who escaped with a gunshot wound, said the kidnappers contacted families of the students and demanded N30m for each of the students to regain their freedom.
It was reported that the kidnappers later reduced the ransom.
Punch Metro gathered that while some of the parents paid about N500,000, others paid between N1m and N4m.
A parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the incident, said the bandits released his daughter after he paid N500,000.
“After negotiation, they said I should pay N1m, but I told them that I could not afford to raise that amount. I told them that I had over N500,000 and they asked me to bring it,” he said.
He added that he sold some of his livestock and property to raise the money.
Another parent, who claimed to be part of the team which delivered the ransom, said the kidnappers first directed them to Abuja Junction.
He said, “They called me yesterday (Saturday) and said if I was not able to pay N1m, they would kill the girls or marry them or use them as sex slaves.
“On arriving Kaduna, we were told that security personnel were monitoring the bandits in the bush.
“But surprisingly, the bandits called us and told us to come and wait at the Abuja Junction.
“They sent us a telephone number to call. We called the number and the person came to take us in a car. Unknown to me, the owner of the car was also a victim — his daughter was among those abducted.
“We drove along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway; that was around 11pm, to where we delivered the ransom.”
He said the bandits also demanded a certain number of crates of soft drinks and cartons of milk from each parent.
“When we got to Dutse, we stopped at a junction leading to the bush. We met soldiers there and they stopped us and made the four of us in the vehicle to sit on the ground.
“We trekked far inside the bush from Dutse and handed over the money to them and they released the girls to us.
“Some parents paid N1m, some paid N2m, some paid over N500,000, depending on how each parent bargained with the hoodlums because they spoke separately to the parents.
“Some parents were asked to drop their money at a particular place at Abuja Junction and leave the place then somebody picked the money, counted it and notified the people in the bush that the money had been paid,” he added.
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are happy to receive your opinion and request. If you need advert or sponsored post, We’re excited you’re considering advertising or sponsoring a post on our blog. Your support is what keeps us going. With the current trend, it’s very obvious content marketing is the way to go. Banner advertising and trying to get customers through Google Adwords may get you customers but it has been proven beyond doubt that Content Marketing has more lasting benefits.
We offer majorly two types of advertising:
1. Sponsored Posts: If you are really interested in publishing a sponsored post or a press release, video content, advertorial or any other kind of sponsored post, then you are at the right place.
WHAT KIND OF SPONSORED POSTS DO WE ACCEPT?
Generally, a sponsored post can be any of the following:
Press release
Advertorial
Video content
Article
Interview
This kind of post is usually written to promote you or your business. However, we do prefer posts that naturally flow with the site’s general content. This means we can also promote artists, songs, cosmetic products and things that you love of all products or services.
DURATION & BONUSES
Every sponsored article will remain live on the site as long as this website exists. The duration is indefinite! Again, we will share your post on our social media channels and our email subscribers too will get to read your article. You’re exposing your article to our: Twitter followers, Facebook fans and other social networks.
We will also try as much as possible to optimize your post for search engines as well.
Submission of Materials : Sponsored post should be well written in English language and all materials must be delivered via electronic medium. All sponsored posts must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail on Microsoft Word unless otherwise noted.
PRICING
The price largely depends on if you’re writing the content or we’re to do that. But if your are writing the content, it is $60 per article.
2. Banner Advertising: We also offer banner advertising in various sizes and of course, our prices are flexible. you may choose to for the weekly rate or simply buy your desired number of impressions.
Technical Details And Pricing
Banner Size 300 X 250 pixels : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Banner Size 728 X 90 pixels: Appears on the top right Corner of the homepage and all pages on the site.
Large rectangle Banner Size (336x280) : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Small square (200x200) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Half page (300x600) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Portrait (300x1050) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Billboard (970x250) : Appears on the home page.
Submission of Materials : Banner ads can be in jpeg, jpg and gif format. All materials must be deliverd via electronic medium. All ads must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail in the ordered pixel dimensions unless otherwise noted.
For advertising offers, send an email with your name,company, website, country and advert or sponsored post you want to appear on our website to advert @ alexa. ng
Normally, we should respond within 48 hours.