Gunmen who kidnapped four journalists near Aba, Abia State, on Sunday have insisted on a ransom of N250 million before releasing their captives, leaders of the Nigerian Union of Journalists said yesterday.

The sized journalists -Lagos NUJ chairman Wahab Oba, assistant secretary Sylvester Okereke, zonal secretary Adolphus Okonkwo and Lagos-based journalist Shola Oyeyipo -  as well as their driver were waylaid while on their way back from the national executive committee meeting of the NUJ in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

NUJ president Mohammed Garba told Daily Trust in Abuja yesterday that he had spoken with the kidnappers and two of their captives by telephone in the evening, and the gunmen told him that they were not willing to negotiate their ransom demand down.

Garba said the kidnappers had switched off their phones by the time their deadline of 5pm yesterday approached, but they later switched on around 7pm.

He said when he got through to them, they demanded to know if the ransom payment was ready. Garba then pleaded with them to understand that NUJ had no such money and that the kidnapped people were only journalists who could not afford the ransom demanded.

He then asked to speak with the captives, and was allowed to speak with Oba and Okonkwo, who he said pleaded with him to do what he could to get them freed. Garba said from the way they spoke, the journalists sounded unharmed.

He said he again pleaded with the kidnappers to release Oba and the others.

Yesterday, a delegation of top NUJ leaders visited families of the abducted journalists in Lagos to sympathise with them and assure of the union's commitment to freeing them.

The delegation, led by deputy president Rotimi Obamuagu, visited Oba's wife Barakat, Okoronkwo's wife Anthonia and Okereke's wife Christiana.

Also yesterday, NUJ national secretary Shu'aibu Leman said, "We pleaded with the kidnappers to free the victims on the grounds that we cannot afford the ransom they demanded but they refused. They also asked for all the ransom and refused to reduce it."

He said NUJ leaders spoke to Oba and Okonkwo, and that "both want the money paid so they could be re-united with their families."

The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) also condemned what it called "the reprehensible act of abduction of journalists." In a statement, president of the Guild Gbenga Adefaye said, "While it is frightening that journalists whose primary responsibility is to help the weak survive have become targets of unconscionable crime of kidnap, the kidnap itself like others reported cases in the South Eastern states reflects the pitiable state of insecurity in the country. We are really made to look like the failed state. To the kidnappers, we urge them to release the poor journalists. It is un-thinkable for their poor dependants to cough out N250million ransom.

"Kidnapping and other forms of criminality highlight the urgent need for governments at all levels to wake up and arrest the failure of the state. While the security agencies do their duties, there is indeed an urgent need for a stakeholders' summit - governors, politicians, traditional rulers and security agencies to meet and fashion out an appropriate response to the embarrassing situation where citizens are abducted for ransom. The criminals are not ghosts. They live in our midst. Only a collective effort by all can stop their unholy activities."