PHILIP EKE, YENAGOA
Armed men, recently, invaded Otuasega in Ogbia Local
Government Area of Bayelsa State and abducted the council chairman,
Mr. Enaye Abah.
The incident occurred at about 7.05am, along the Otuasega-Okarki Expressway.
According to eyewitnesses, four men armed with sophisticated weapons,
blocked the official Prado Sport Utility Vehicle, SUV, of the council
chairman with a blue Mazda car, believed to have been commandeered
form the driver. Abah was about to negotiate a bend on the Otuasega
stretch of the road.
The hoodlums were said to have demobilized the SUV conveying the
chairman by firing at the front tyre, before embarking on a firing
spree that rattled the sleepy settlement.
An eyewitness said the police orderly attached to the chairman
abandoned his principal and ran for safety, on sighting the heavy arms
and hearing the volley of gun shots.
The source said: “The hoodlums dragged the chairman from his vehicle
and transferred him into a blue Mazda. They drove him away towards
Okarki in Rivers State.
“On getting to Okarki waterside, he was dragged into to a waiting
speed boat. The driver of the blue Mazda was shot in the leg for
refusing to willingly follow the gunmen and their victim into the
waiting speed boat.”The gunmen set the Mazda ablaze.
Eyewitness account A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
told Vanguard at Okarki, a Rivers State border town with Bayelsa
State, that the gunmen, on reaching the jetty, fired into the air and
ordered everybody at the waterfront to lie on the ground.
They took the chairman and the injured driver into a waiting speedboat
and disappeared into the creek.Contacted, Bayelsa Police Public
Relations Officer, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the incident, saying
preliminary report showed that the abducted chairman was ferried by
his abductors towards Abua waterways in Rivers State.
“Our men have been placed on red alert and we have put measures in
place to rescue him,” Butswat said.
Meanwhile, Police have confirmed the release of Mr. Joseph Agama,
cousin to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke,
from kidnappers den.
According to the police, Joseph Agama, who was abducted on March 19,
was released on April 8.
“The father sent me a text message that his son was released on
Ekeowe-Olugbobiri waterway without payment of ransom,” Butswat
said.stressing that the culprits must be surely apprehended and they
must face the wrath of the law.
