Gunmen kidnap Anglican priest, another in Delta

Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen struck on Saturday morning at Issele-Mkpetime, an agrarian community in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State, where they kidnapped an Anglican priest, Rev Anthony Oyi.

Also kidnapped along with the priest was a middle-aged man whose identity could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.

Rev Oyi, a resident of Oko-Ogbele, near Asaba, the state capital, had gone to his farm with his family at Issele-Mkpetime, his hometown, where the hoodlums struck.

Community sources claim that the entire household of the cleric was initially abducted in one fell swoop by the gun-wielding hoodlums.

“The abductors released their victim’s wife and children and kept the reverend and the other man, asking the wife to go look for money to come and pay ransom for the husband’s release,” a source told our correspondent.

According to the source, the vigilante in Issele-Uku and Issele-Mkpitime have been alerted and a search party dispatched into the bush. The source stressed the need for the police to act fast to free the captives.

When contacted, police spokesman DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya confirmed the abduction did not provide further details.

Onovwakpoyeya told our correspondent on phone in Asaba that the police were already “combing the bushes to free the victims.”