Gunmen abducts Council Chairman in Bayelsa state

The political crisis in Bayelsa state following the recent elections in the country has continued to escalate as gunmen invaded President Goodluck Jonathan’s home council, Ogbia and abducted the Chairman Mr. Anya Abah in a dare-devil operation.

The four-man gang of kidnappers, armed with sophisticated weapons, barricaded the official Prado jeep vehicle of the Council Chairman, dragged him out at gun point along the Otuasega-Okaki road area of the Council and whisked him away, to the surprise of other motorists who watched, stupefied, as the operation took place.

It was gathered that the Police orderly attached to him, surprised at the audacity of the gang to have barricaded his boss's vehicle, and confronted by four high calibre rifles pointed at him as the council's chairman was being whisked from the vehicle, ran away.

Relatives of the Chairman said he was on his way to the Council Headquarters to attend a stakeholder meeting on the need for peaceful conduct of the aborted State Assembly election in the area.

“The armed men dragged the council Chairman from his vehicle and transferred him into a blue coloured Mazda. They drove him away towards the waterside from where he was taken away in a speed boat. The driver of the Blue Mazda was shot in the leg for refusing to follow the gunmen and their victim into the waiting speed boat,” said a source.

The Mazda was later set ablaze by the armed men along the waterside and the number plate taken away.

Confirming the development, the Police Public Relations Officer, Astimin Mutswat, said a preliminary report showed that the abducted Chairman was ferried by his abductors towards the Abua waterways in Rivers State,

”Our men have been placed on red alert and we have put measures in place to rescue him,” he stated.

Credit: Segun James/ThisDay