PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
Gunmen along the Emohua/Kalabari road in Rivers State Tuesday night defied the security arrangement put in place by chairmen of the four local government areas affected by incessant kidnapping on the road, abducting two persons in the process.
The victims were said to be passengers traveling in a private vehicle.
A similar incident happened barely four days ago when five passengers of a commercial bus were also kidnapped by hoodlums terrorising the area.
The incident forced the local council chairmen of Emohua, Asari-Toru and Akuku-Toru to come together to partner with security agencies in a bid to curb the ugly incidents on the route.
An eye witness who did not want to be named said Tuesday’s victims were in a private vehicle, conveying goods suspected to be illegally refined petroleum product, and headed towards Choba, near the University of Port Harcourt.
He said the incident occurred at about 8pm, Tuesday, on the “same spot where a commercial bus driver was killed and eight of his passengers kidnapped about a month ago,” which also witnessed the abduction of five passengers last Saturday.
“There were two persons in the car, the driver and another man. The vehicle was loaded with adulterated kerosene.
“They took two of them and left the vehicle there. Policemen went and saw the car. They (operatives) were acting as if something was scaring them away from the car”.
He added that a driver who drove past the vehicle said the incident occurred around to eight in the night, adding that “when he was coming, he saw this two occupants of the vehicle coming towards Choba.
“Now we have confirmed it because the relative of the occupants of the vehicle are now looking for a tow van to remove the vehicle.
“It is the same spot that they killed one of our drivers. The same spot that they kidnapped five passengers. It is the same spot where that vehicle is packed”.
He called for the immediate enforcement of a ban on night travels on the Emuoha-Kalabari road.
Another source, a native of Abonnema, one of the communities along the route, disclosed that the kidnappers “have contacted a friend of one of the victims and demanded a ransom of N50 million.”
The source who gave his name as George suggested that the kidnappers “are camped in the Emohua bushes.”
He said; “If they don’t come in a car, when they kidnap people, they will carry their captors on foot into the bush.
“A friend to one of the guys that was kidnapped said the guy was calling him yesterday night, he was picking. So early this morning, they miscreants use another number to call him, and they are requesting for N50 million.”
But the spokesperson of the Rivers State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko said the incident had not been reported to her office.
She said, “The command has not received report of the incident yet. But when such things happen, let the people of that area report it to the nearest police station.
“It is sad that even the victims don’t come to the police when they are released. They prefer to go to the media.”
She used the opportunity to announce the rescue of four of the six victims abducted earlier, adding that the police has intensified effort to rescue the remaining victim, as well as to apprehend the fleeing suspects.
