A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Umar Ardo, whose daughter, Aisha, was kidnapped by gunmen on Saturday, has confirmed he paid $15,000 i
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Umar Ardo, whose daughter, Aisha, was kidnapped by gunmen on Saturday, has confirmed he paid $15,000 in Bitcoin to secure her release. Ardo said he was contacted by one of the kidnappers on Sunday at about 9:56 am who said his daughter would return to him safely if he cooperated with them.
“I then said okay I will cooperate and negotiate with you on one condition; that is if you give me two promises. One, that you will not harm my daughter, by which I meant you won’t kill her. Secondly you will not molest my daughter by which I meant you won’t rape her.
“But if you cannot promise me these two then you can as well do what you want to do with her. The caller then said Dr I see you are a gentleman and I am also a gentleman. I give you these two promises; we will not touch your daughter. I then asked what would you want me to do in order to get back my daughter? He said you are going to pay us $15,000. If you cooperate with us your daughter would return to you but if you don’t cooperate with us you will never see her again alive.”
Describing the kidnappers as gentlemen who kept their promise, Ardo said they later called him around 3 pm to say they wanted him to make the payment in Bitcoin.
“I told them I don’t know how to do this bit payment but the caller insisted I must learn. I will text you our address through which you will go and make the payment; it is up to you to do that; don’t forget the life of your daughter is on the line.
“Thank God I had the money in my domiciliary account. I got somebody who paid the money through the wallet account. Within an hour we sent the money and it generated payment evidence which I texted to him. I was waiting for his response but he didn’t but by 10 pm a call came. I picked and it was my daughter. She said she was at Drumstick at Gwarimpa where I went with family members and picked her.” Ardo said.
