BREAKING: Six days after abduction, three CRIN staff regain freedom after payment of N50m ransom
Three staff members of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), in Ibadan, Oyo State, who were abducted last Thursday by armed men, regained freedom early on Wednesday after the payment of N50 million as ransom.…
The Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), based at Idi-Ayunre in Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State, is a federal agricultural research institute responsible for research into cocoa and other tree crops. Its sprawling plantations and research farms, like many such facilities in southwestern Nigeria, have increasingly become targets for armed kidnap gangs who exploit their relatively remote, forested locations to abduct staff and demand ransom.
Coverage across outlets agrees that three CRIN staff were seized by gunmen while working on the institute's farm and held for six days before their release. Accounts differ on the ransom figure: while most reports, including Tribune's, cite N50 million as the amount eventually paid, Vanguard notes that the kidnappers had initially demanded as much as N120 million, suggesting the final sum may have been negotiated down. Details such as the identities of the victims, their current condition, and whether security operatives made any arrests in connection with the abduction have not yet been reported.