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Tony Osauzo, Benin
Former chairman of Akoko-Edo branch of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Alhaji Jimoh Olumoye, popularly called JJ, has been abducted.
A staff of Owan East Local Government Area, he was said to have been kidnapped along Igarra – Okpe Road on Sunday afternoon, while driving in his car to pick his children from his farm.
A family source who broke the news to journalists yesterday, said: “His children had gone to the farm early in the morning and he promised to go and pick them 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 open and his mobile phone abandoned. After fruitlessly searching for their father, they decided to come home to inform the family.
“We have been praying for his safety. We are worried because he is a civil servant, who also farms to augment whatever he is earning. 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 Olumoye’s family has recovered his car and his phone and lodged a formal complaint at the Igarra Police Station.
It was also learnt that 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 comb the forests around the area to forestall their escape to neighbouring Ondo and Kogi states.
Meanwhile, a leader of one of the vigilance groups, who declined to be named, expressed disappointment on the slow response of some security agencies immediately they were contacted about the incidence on Sunday evening.
“It was only the State Security Service that responded to our call immediately we heard of the incident, and called them. We have mobilised our members and we are trying to track them down in the forests so they would not move out to other states close to us,” he said.
A retired headmistress and her husband were recently kidnapped along the Igarra-Ibillo Road, and were only released after a ransom was paid, while a Catholic priest was, two months ago, kidnapped along the Igarra-Ikpeshi Road and was rescued by a combined team of vigilance group and security agencies.
Spokesman for the Edo State Police Command, Chidi Nwabuzor, said he could not confirm the incident as he was away on national assignment.
