Nineteen days after Chief Inengite Nitabai, cousin to
President Goodluck Jonathan was seized by armed men at Otuoke in Ogbia Local
Government Area of Bayelsa State, gunmen struck Monday at Oloibiri and abducted
Joyce Ebua, a sister to the state Commissioner for Sports, Chief Mitema
Obordor.Oloibiri, also in Ogbia Local Government Area, is the community where
oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in 1956.The latest kidnap
occurred at a time the security agencies in the state were working to locate
the whereabouts of President Jonathan’s cousin, Chief Nitabai.
It was learnt that five armed men stormed the residence
of Ebua at 8.55pm on Monday and whisked her away through the creek behind her
house.The gunmen were said to have shot sporadically into the air as they
escaped with their victim to an unknown destination in the mangrove. One of the
kidnappers was reportedly dressed in a mobile police uniform.A source said:
“They were five in number and one of them was wearing MOPOL uniform. They
forcefully abducted the victim and put her in a waiting speedboat at the
waterfront behind her house to an unknown location.”JTF respondsThe
development, it was learnt, angered the newly-posted Commander of the Joint
Task Force in the Niger Delta, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, Major General
Emmanuel Atewe.He was said to have summoned all the officers and men of the
outfit to the headquarters of the JTF in Yenagoa at 2.30am.“The commander
ensured that nobody in the command slept after the incident,” a security source
said. Atewe, it was further learnt, led troops to the scene of the crime
yesterday morning.JTF Media Coordinator, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed the
incident.He said: “The Command has activated the security network on both land
and waterways in conjunction with other security agencies to locate and track
down the kidnappers.”The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hilary Opara, also
confirmed the kidnap incident and said that the police had begun
investigations.… as police nab 6 kidnappersMeanwhile, police in Bayelsa State
have arrested six suspected kidnappers, who after robbing a house in Southern
Ijaw Local Government Area abducted a woman.However, the woman was freed by the
marine police, who intercepted the bandits along the waterways. A police source
said the suspects robbed a home at Diebu community, escaped with some valuables
and a woman.
The source said: “They were armed with AK-47 rifles. They
stormed a home, stole many valuables. Curiously, they took a woman along with
them maybe to demand for ransom later.“But luck ran out on them when some
marine policemen intercepted them along the Southern Ijaw waterways and
arrested them. They are currently being detained at the headquarters of the
command in Yenagoa.”
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