The six gunmen who kidnapped the wife of a lawmaker in Nigeria’s oil-rich Bayelsa’s state House of Assembly (parliament) Tuesday have threatened to kill her unless the ransom being demanded for her release is paid urgently, the local press reported. The kidnappers, who abducted Mrs. Dorothy Otele in the oil city of Port Harcourt Tuesday, have reduced the ransom being demanded from 400 million naira to 200 million naira (117 naira=US$1). But the husband, Mr. Franklin Otele, said he would not pay any ransom because he had no such money. “While trying to convince me to part with the required 200 million naira, I could occasionally hear sporadic gunshots from behind. They threatened that since I did not want to pay the money they were dragging her to a shrine where she would be killed,” the local press quoted him as saying Thursday. Police spokesperson Ireju Barasua said the whereabouts of the woman was still unknown. Panapress.
