No fewer than four indigenes of Ikem community in Isi-Uzo local Council of Enugu State have been abducted in the past two weeks with different sums of ransom paid for their release.
The victims include the Catechist of Saint James Catholic Church, Ishioroto-Ikem, Mr. Lawrence Ndu, an Italy-based evangelist, Mr. Emeka Odo and his brother Ikechukwu Odo, as well as the most recent victim, Ejike Agbodo, a bus driver, who was kidnapped while on commercial duty along Ikem-Benue State road.
Narrating his experience, Odo disclosed, yesterday, that the over 10 kidnappers who abducted them along Ikem- Obollo Afor road were all Fulani terrorists that welded AK-47.
Odo who quickly went back to his base shortly after he regained freedom, narrated that they were flagged down in their car, commandeered into the bush and were taken through bush tracks to Eha-Amufu and Benue border, adding that they paid ransom before they were set free.
Odo said that his abductors spoke Hausa and Fulfude language, stating that most of them came from Niger republic.
He also disclosed that some indigenes of the community connived with the kidnappers to carry out the abductions.
MEANWHILE, an Abia State-based journalist, Mr. Chuks Onuoha, was kidnapped by gunmen, who gained entry into his home at Umungasi Ohuhu in Umuahia North Local Council and took him away in his Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).
Onuoha, who is the editor-in-chief of All Facts Newspaper, an Umuahia-based publication, was, until last year, the state correspondent of the Sun Newspapers.
Wife of the kidnapped journalist, Mrs. Udodirim Onuoha, said her husband was taken away by three armed men who entered their house at about 10:45pm on Tuesday, while he was resting after returning from work.
She told a delegation of journalists led by the Chairman of Abia State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Victor Ndukwe, that she was also in the sitting room with her husband when the hoodlums slipped in through the back door.
According to her, the first gunman that entered the house pointed a gun at her husband and demanded for his phones and ATM card, while the other gunmen emerged from different directions.
“One of them said to me, ‘madam don’t panic’,” she said, adding that they took her husband away in his vehicle with his two mobile phones and ATM card.
She stated that the evil men later called and demanded N10 million ransom before they would release their victim, adding that they later lowered their ransom demand to N2 million.
