By Ayodele Oni
A fresh demand for N200 million ransom has dashed the hope of an early return of two children of a military officer in Kaduna after the family had already paid N26 million to their abductors.
It has been two months of agony and waiting as the family keep vigil to await the return of their two children that have spent nine weeks in the custody of kidnappers.
Aside paying N26 million, the abductors collected 25 mobile phones, according to an account by the mother of the two boys.
Tina Daniel Dominic, whose husband is an Air Force officer, revealed that her sons, Derrick, who will turns 14 in December, and Damian, 12, were abducted from their home at Rimi, Kamazou, in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Sunday, August 30, 2026, when gunmen broke into the house at night.
The mother, said the family had sold their cars and other valuables to raise the first N20 million, and had also bought 25 mobile phones for the abductors, yet the children remain in captivity.
Recounting the night of the abduction, Mrs Dominic said she was unwell and had gone to bed earlier than usual when she began hearing gunshots.
“On 30th of August, 2026, I was in my home at Rimi, Kamazou. That night, I was not feeling fine, so we entered earlier than usual. We were sleeping, and then I started hearing noise, sounds of gunshots,” she said.
“So I picked my phone to call my neighbour, I’m hearing gunshots. They said yes, that it’s close, but they heard that kidnappers were in my neighbour’s house.
“I now wake up, on my way to go and wake my children to come so that we can stay together. I now realise that they are in my house. I was hearing how they were trying to break my fence.
“My husband is an Air Force personnel. He went back to his place of work.
“So I hid my children inside my kitchen pantry. Even before I finished hiding them, they had already come in through my first son’s room, Derrick’s room. They opened the burglary and came in.
“I’ve already hidden my three children, Derrick, Damian and Dominion.
“They start pointing guns in my head, and they started asking me to open doors and they start checking. Then they took me outside, tied my hands, and took me outside.
“On reaching outside my house, to my other neighbour’s house, I saw my other neighbour already tied there.”
She said the abductors kept going back and forth between her house and where she was held, insisting she was lying about the whereabouts of her children.
“They said I should not lie to them, that they know everything. I should not lie, that they know my children are in the house.
That I should not lie. And my husband, I said no, my husband left late. They were asking, if I do not tell the truth, they will kill me.
“I insisted that my children are not around, but they went in and came back. I think they received a call that the children are in the house. So they went back to the house, and then the only thing I saw, they brought my two sons out.
“I was asking Derrick, why did you people come out? They said, ‘No mommy, we did not come out, they opened and they checked and they saw us.’ I said where is Dominion, they said they left Dominion.”
Mrs Dominic said the gunmen marched her, her two sons and a neighbour through the bush for about two hours before deciding she was too weak to continue.
“We walked to an extent with the children and my neighbour. We followed the back of that Rimi.
“We are walking and along the line, like an hour to two hours’ walk, they saw that I could not go on again because I was falling, I could not walk faster. I was falling because I was not feeling fine.
“So they said I should go back. I said I cannot go back, where will I go? They said no, I should go back and look for money.
And then they collected my phone and said I should go back and look for money, that they will call back.
“I said I don’t know the road of that location. They said I should go back, that I should just be going, that I will see people. So that is how I managed to reach home that day.
“I reached home, and then the next day they contacted us to say that we pay N500 million. My husband told them we don’t have N500 million. That he is a soldier.
“They said he is a very rich soldier, he flies airplane. My husband told them no, he doesn’t fly planes. They insisted and said we bring the money.
“So we started going back and forth. They now said N100 million again. After a week, we came down to N100 million. We said we cannot afford N100 million. Then after some days, they said N20 million.
“That it is N20 million, they are going to collect last, that they are not removing one naira.”
She said the family agreed and began selling their belongings.
“We had to sell our cars to try to raise that N20 million and other valuables. We raised the N20 million, they took the 20 million to them. After taking the 20 million, we were expecting they will release our children.
“The way they took money from our neighbour, I think about N15 million thereabouts, and they released him. So we thought after we give the money, they will release the children. They did not release the children.
“In fact, they stopped calling us for like a wek. After a week, they started calling again. We said they haven’t released the children.
“They said no, that the money we took to them is not complete. They said that about N1.3 million is missing from the money. Tomorrow they will say N1.5 million. Next day, they will say N3 million. They are just going up and down.
“Later, they now said we should bring another N6 million. And they gave the children phone to talk to us, that if we bring the money, they are going to release them.”
“Somebody in the camp that they released, they talked to that person, and the woman assured us that after we give that money, they said they are going to release the children. She heard them saying this.
“So we started looking for another N6 million and giving to them again. They still did not release the children. With other things we took to them; we took phones, like 25 phones to them. They still did not release the children.
“Yesterday, being 29th of October, they reached out to us and said that my husband is a military officer, that he sent people to come to their camp, that they took some people from their camp.
“So for that, they are not releasing the children. That we have to bring N200 million. That is the new development, that we have to bring N200 million before they will release the children, which we don’t have.
“We are crying to the government. We don’t have that amount of money to give to them. We say we don’t have. They said we should go to the government.
“That my husband is a government worker, that we should go, they will help us. We say we don’t have. That there is no way we can raise that amount of money.
“And since two weeks, they have not talked to us.”
The distraught mother said she had repeatedly posted about the abduction on social media and tagged the Kaduna State Governor and President Bola Tinubu, but no government official had reached out to the family.
“We are crying for help from anywhere and everywhere to secure the release of my children.
“The government has abandoned us. I posted the kidnap incident and tagged the Kaduna State Governor and President Bola Tinubu, but it appears nobody is interested in our case.
“We are being tortured because my husband is a Nigerian military officer. For two weeks now I have been writing and posting, tagging government officials, but no one has reached out.
“We are being tortured because my husband is a Nigerian military officer. For two weeks now I have been writing and posting, tagging government officials, but no one has reached out.”
She said her children are young and one of them is in fragile health.
“I’m begging, these children are small. By December, Derrick will be 14 years, while Damian is 12 years.
“Damian was not strong; he had a major surgery about two years ago, and recently he came back from school and we were supposed to go to the hospital the next day, being Monday, before this incident happened on Sunday for his check-up.
“My husband is a military officer who leaves us every now and then to save this country, but no one, including his country, is ready to save his family.
“The government should come to our aid. These kidnappers are asking us for what we cannot afford. We have sold everything we’ve got. We bought 25 mobile phones for them, yet they are asking for another N200 million.
“I am begging the Kaduna State Government to come to our aid. As a mother, I’m begging that this situation should touch those in authority, unless they are part of the kidnapping gang.
“For nine weeks now, these children have been held in captivity,” she lamented.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
