Francis Sadhere
The Founder/Executive Director Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, HNDC, Mr. Sunny Ofehe, has appealed to the kidnappers of the three Dutch Nationals kidnapped in Bayelsa State last Sunday, to release them to their families.
Mr. Ofehe made this appeal yesterday in a press statement made available to our correspondent in Warri, Delta State.
Mr. Ofehe and one other Nigerian, Mr. Femi Soewo, based in Holland, were kidnapped along with the three Dutch Nationals, but were released on Monday.
According to Mr. Ofehe, the incident occurred while he and his crew were returning back to Warri after a successful tour of the newly built Chevron facilitated GMOU hospital in Dodo River Communities in Bayelsa State.
He said the visit was primarily to see how they can help solicit international support for the hospital and the impoverished people of the Dodo River Communities.
He said; “On Sunday the 4th of May, 2014, at about 16:45, a group of heavily armed gunmen suspected to be Niger Delta militants attacked our speed boats carrying my delegation from the Netherlands which included Mr. Erhard Leffers, Mrs. Marianne Vos, Mr. Jan Andre Groenendijk and Mr. Femi Soewu, two journalists from the Warri chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ and some leaders of the communities.”
“The gunmen numbering about 10, shot sporadically into the air, water and the speed boats carrying us including Mr. Berry Negerese, Chairman, Dodo River Rural Development Association and operators of the NNPC/Chevron sponsored GMOU, who also facilitated the visit. Our team was well received by the people of the communities led by their traditional rulers,” he added.
According to him; “Not long after we were bade farewell by the monarch, the armed gang rounded up our boats suddenly from nowhere and asked everyone to lie face down and screamed “we want the white men”. Everyone was virtually panic stricken and terrified. We laid face down and they dragged out the white people while also picking out every valuable in the boats.”
Mr. Sunny Ofehe said that just when they thought the kidnappers had gone, another boat conveying a few number of the armed men while still firing into the air, ordered him and the other Nigerian, Femi from Holland into the boat and sped off chanting some war songs.
He said; “I and Femi were later blindfolded along one of the creeks and ordered into another boat from the one they first took us with. They took us to unknown location and left us there while still under blind fold and were kept separately. Late Monday evening we were both taken away in a speedboat and brought to another unknown community where they abandoned us.”
“The armed men then threatened us to leave the Niger Delta region if we want to remain alive. We were able to find our way through a path to the town and called for help. Some local people ferried us to the nearby jetty from where we were taken to a place where we got a boat to the upland,” he said.
