Barely 48 hours after the Managing Director and seven employees of a Lagos-based oil company were kidnapped while in a boat heading towards the highbrow Lekki area of the state, anxious family members of the victim reportedly besieged the premises of oil company in Apapa demanding to know the fate of the victims.
The oil workers were kidnapped last Monday while in the boat and the boat they boarded was discovered later drifting in a different area from where they were headed without them.
Eyewitnesses said they were forced out of their boat into another that took them away. Their boat did not capsize and their belongings were intact.
Sources said the family members who were wearing gloomy faces made frantic efforts to have audience with authorities of the oil company without success. They reportedly nearly created an ugly scene at the company but for the intervention of one unnamed top official of the company who pleaded for time to enable them take decisive action towards locating the victims safely.
It was also learned that so far, the kidnappers have not gotten in touch with family members of the victims but, sources hinted that they may be in serious discreet negotiation with the oil company where they targeted to get huge sums of money as ransom.
One of the sources that pleaded for strict anonymity told Vanguard that authorities of the oil company have instructed members of the family of the victims not to take any step that will jeopardize their secret negotiations with the kidnappers in other not to endanger the lives of their relations.
On their part, Lagos State Police Command stated unequivocally, through their spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin that investigation into the kidnap of the oil workers is still in progress. Hundeyin further explained that because of the sensitive nature of the incident which involved human lives, he would not give more details of the efforts police is making towards rescuing the victims in other not to endanger their lives.