LESS THAN 24 hours after National Security Minister Martin Joseph assured the country that there was no evidence to support claims of human trafficking, one family received a call telling them that if they do not pay a ransom, their child would be shipped abroad.
The Lobai family are now battling with who or why someone would want to disturb their family aura with this tragedy.
Sally Lobai left her Piarco home on Wednesday with the intention of doing her best at her job interview.
She left clad in a "power" business suit, those worn by women who carry themselves with prestige and dignity, her relatives said.
Lobai left the Longdenville, Chaguanas interview place and called her boyfriend telling him that she was in a taxi on her way home. She never made it. Instead a male voice who answered her phone demanded $300,000 for her safe return.
The Lobais are hopeful that she would return home safely and soon.
Her boyfriend, according to the family, received a call from the 26-year-old saying that she was aboard a taxi, around 2.30 p.m. He called an hour later but there was no answer. He tried again an hour after and a male voice answered demanding a $300,000 ransom otherwise she would be shipped out of the country never to be heard from again.
Lobai's father, Francis, is begging with the girl's kidnappers to release her saying that he does not have that kind of money to pay.
"I begging them to release her, that's all," the distraught father said when asked what he wanted to tell the men that had his daughter.
Lobai added that the relationship between his daughter and the rest of the family was a good one and said there was no reason for her to run away, extinguishing any thoughts that she may have.
Meanwhile, in another unrelated incident, police are still looking for the man who snatched seven-year-old Jennifer Martinez from her school on Wednesday.
Reports state a man came to the girl's Arima Centenary Government School asking frantically for her. The man is reported to have told guards at the school that he was sent by the girl's mother. The girl was placed in his care. She was then seen entering a car, which sped off, eye witnesses say.
Anti-Kidnapping Squad along with Arima police are investigating both incidents.
