He also said, “Whenever the terrorists call the parents, the children are flogged and heard crying in the background.
The kidnappers insist on the N100 million ransom they demanded on Tuesday and threaten they would take drastic actions against the school children and the other victims.
“We were told that during their calls, they heard how they were flogging the children and the way they were crying to call the attention of the parents.
“They also threatened them to provide the ransom as early as possible or they would do and undo. They have called close to five relatives so far.
“They called the mother of two of the kidnapped pupils and asked how much she had gotten so far, but she replied that she did not have anything yet. The husband of the female worker they called said his wife complained that they were maltreating her and the children.”
Gunmen on January 28 attacked a bus on the Emure-Ekiti-Iporo Ekiti Road conveying home more than 25 pupils after closing hours.
Boje Olanireti, Principal of the secondary section of the groups of schools, confirmed five of the pupils on the bus were taken away.
She said the schoolchildren were being taken to Iporo Ekiti when the tyre of the bus was shot at by terrorists who abducted five of the children and four workers of the school.
The abductions took place on the same day gunmen killed two Ekiti monarchs – the Onimojo of Imojo, Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Babatunde Ogunsakin – and the Alara of Ara Ekiti, Adebayo Fatoba, narrowly escaped.
The traditional rulers were returning from a function in Kogi when their vehicles ran into kidnappers operating on the highway between Ipao and Oke Ako in Ikole Council in Ekiti.