Gunmen Kidnap Ex-NULGE Chairman in Edo

Suspected gunmen last Sunday reportedly kidnapped a former Chairman of Akoko-Edo branch of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in Edo State, Alhaji Jimoh Olumoye.

 

Olumoye is a staff of Owan East Local Government Area of the state and was said to have been abducted on Igarra-Okpe road last Sunday afternoon while driving in his car to pick his children from the farm.

  

Narrating the ugly development yesterday, a member of the family of the victim, said: “He promised to pick his children who had gone to the farm early in the morning in the afternoon before he would attend his family meeting.

"The children waited endlessly for their father, and when they did not see him, they decided to trek home. On their way home, they met his car on the road with the four doors opened and his mobile phone abandoned. After searching for their father fruitlessly, they decided to come home to inform the family.”

 

The family member continued: “We have been praying for his safety; we are worried because he is a civil servant who also has a farm to augment whatever he earns as a civil servant. We are appealing that his abductors release him unhurt. He has an aged mother and everybody is scared of breaking the news to her; we are really worried.”

  

It was gathered that his family had gone to recover his car and his phone, and later lodged a formal complaint at the Igarra police station.

  

Meanwhile, various vigilance groups in Igarra, Ojah, Ogugu and environs in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area and their counterparts in Owan East have been mobilised to commence searching the forests around the area to forestall the escape of the perpetrators to neighbouring Ondo and Kogi States.

 

One of the vigilante leaders, however, expressed their disappointment in the slow response of some security agencies immediately they were contacted on the incidence last Sunday evening.

 

He said: “It was only the State Security Service (SSS) that responded to our call immediately we heard of the incident. We have mobilised our members, and we are trying to track them down in the forests so that they wouldn’t move to other neighbouring states."

  

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor, is yet to answer several calls made to his phone as at the time of filing this report yesterday.

 

Some parts of the local government area had become notorious for kidnapping, and that has even led to the deployment of soldiers and other security agencies to the area to compliment the police in providing security for the people.

  

It was gathered that a retired headmistress and her husband were recently kidnapped on the Igarra-Ibillo road and were only released after a ransom was paid, while a catholic priest was two months ago kidnapped on the Igarra-Ikpeshi road and was rescued by a team of vigilance group and security agencies.