An eyewitness said that four gunmen, who wore masks, stopped the car in which the children were travelling on Murtala Mohammed Way around 7.30 a.m. and abducted them.
Mrs. Juliet James, the mother of the children, was reportedly taking them to school when the suspected kidnappers besieged the car.
The children’s father, Mr. Johnson James, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Calabar.
“My wife was driving out of our street with our three children when some people in a Vento saloon car suddenly accosted them.
“Using their car to block my wife’s car, the men came out pointing guns at my wife and asked for her phone.
“When she handed over her phone to them, they picked up our four-year old daughter.
“Her elder brother, Emmanuel, 10, asked why they were taking his sister away, they picked him up as well.
“It was at that point that our third child, aged seven, ran out of the car and ran back to the house,” he said.
James, a civil servant, said that he had reported the matter to the Federal Housing Estate’s divisional police station in Calabar.
James said that the kidnappers called at noon and demanded a N30 million ransom.
He said that the assailants rejected the offer of the family’s car, a Toyota Sienna car, as a substitute for the ransom for the children’s release.
When contacted, ASP John Umoh, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Cross River, said that he had yet to be briefed about the incident.
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