A Magistrate with Kogi State judiciary, Mr Sam Unwuchola, has been kidnapped on Ajaokuta-Lokoja road, precisely at Jimgbe, near Salem University, at about 7 p.m on Thursday.
According to a source in the state judiciary, the gunmen shot and wounded the magistrate’s friend whose name was yet to be known, saying that the friend had been admitted at an undisclosed medical facility in Lokoja.
The source also said that the victims ran into the hoodlums who opened fire on them thereby forcing them to stop, adding that the kidnappers had demanded N100 million ransom from the wife of the magistrate.
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Ali Janga, said the Police had commenced investigation into the matter.
Unwuchola, a 2002 Law graduate of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma in Edo, is the President, Upper Area Court, Onyedega in Ibaji Local Government Area of the state.
The battle against kidnapping and other forms of criminality in the state began about five months ago when the state government ordered the demolition of 13 houses belonging to arrested kidnappers in the central senatorial district of the state.
The Special Adviser on Security to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (retired), told journalists in Okene that the exercise would continue until the state was rid of kidnapping and other criminality. He warned that anybody caught aiding and abetting crimes in the state would also not be spared, irrespective of status in the society.