Unknown gunmen have kidnapped a reporter with The Punch newspaper, Okechukwu Nnodim, from his residence in Abuja.
But the kidnappers, it was learnt, had already contacted the reporter’s sister living in Lagos to demand N10m ransom.
The gunmen numbered four were said to have gained access to his residence on Wednesday night, after scaling the fence and firing sporadically into the air.
Nnodim was said to have just rounded off devotion with his family around 11pm on Wednesday, when the gunmen broke into his residence at Kubwa, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory.
The gunmen reportedly demanded money from him before whisking him away.
Two children of a neighbour of his were also said to have been taken away along with the Punch reporter.
But according to sources, after a few hours later, the kidnappers contacted the reporter’s sister living in Lagos, and requested the payment of N10 million ransom to secure the Punch reporter’s release.
The Punch reporter’s abduction is the latest in the wave of kidnappings across the country.
In May 2020, a journalist with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Chinenye Iwuoha, was kidnapped in Umuahia, the Abia state capital.
Earlier in January 2020, a journalist with the FRCN, Maxwell Nashian, reportedly died in the hospital, following his abduction from his residence in Adamawa State.