Posted by By HENRY CHUKWURAH, Port Harcourt and LEVI OGBONNA, Abuja on
The gale of kidnapping sweeping through the Niger Delta and perpetrated by youths masquerading as militants appears to be gaining ground in other parts of the country with a 17-year old female undergraduate of Ebonyi State University, Promise Nneamaka Ubani, abducted in broad daylight about a fortnight ago in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State.
…As hostage escapes from abductors
The gale of kidnapping sweeping through the Niger Delta and perpetrated by youths masquerading as militants appears to be gaining ground in other parts of the country with a 17-year old female undergraduate of Ebonyi State University, Promise Nneamaka Ubani, abducted in broad daylight about a fortnight ago in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State.
The girl was snatched on 32, Egerton Road, near the famous Onitsha Main Market as she walked across the street to buy soap in a shop opposite her grandmother's house. Since her kidnapping, on July 3, her abductors, who have demanded a ransom, have maintained regular contact with her parents in Abuja on telephone.
It was gathered that the abductors occasionally allow her to speak with her parents.
The lady's abduction is believed to have been carried out with the connivance of two of her mother's colleagues in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) headquarters, Abuja who had sworn to settle scores with her over what they considered as her rigidity in the discharge of her duties.
The girl's mother, Mrs. Juliana Ubani, is the secretary to the senior manager in charge of payment at PHCN.
Daily Sun gathered that prior to her daughter's abduction, the woman had, for two weeks, been inundated with text messages and anonymous telephone calls demanding that she resign from her job in her own interest. The first message gave her two weeks' ultimatum within which to do that and subsequent ones served as reminders.
The reason given for the order was the woman's refusal to give in to pressures mounted on her to circumvent the instruction of her boss and make available for processing and payment the file of an indigenous firm for a contract work done with PHCN.
A completely devastated Mrs. Ubani recalled the incident four years ago when two of her colleagues mounted pressures on her to set aside a directive of her boss, that payment on work be suspended to allow for auditing of the organization.
At the expiration of the two-week ultimatum, the anonymous callers told Mrs. Ubani to be prepared for the worst for her failure to resign as directed. The woman got worried and reported the matter to the authorities at PHCN who summoned the two accused staff and told them to be prepared to be treated as prime suspects in the event that anything happened to the woman.
A few days later, Mrs. Ubani's first daughter was kidnapped. In the course of their investigation, the police arrested the two PHCN staff, an action which fuelled more threats and anger in the kidnappers, who have vowed to kill their victim for the audacity of 'arresting their men".
All entreaties by the distraught parents for the release of their daughter have not yielded result as the abductors have continued to shift from one demand to the other, all of which the girl's parents consider very difficult to fulfil.
From resignation from her job, Mrs. Ubani had been ordered to kill her boss through poisoning in exchange for her daughter's life or in the alternative, make available to the kidnappers the ransom sum of $45,000 (about N6 million).
While police are still investigating the matter, questions are being raised as to why no attempt has been made to arrest the owner of the firm at the centre of the matter even as immense pressure in said to be mounted on the police for the release of the two PHCN staff being detained over the abduction case.
Mr. Chike Ubani, the victim's father, who is too shocked to discuss the matter, has continued to express the fear that his daughter may he hurt, appealing to the abductors to temper justice with mercy.
In a related development, 24 hours after he was kidnapped, a contractor with the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals, near Port Harcourt, Prince Awenakra, has regained his freedom.
The hostage's freedom, however, was not a product of the usual negotiations between the hostage takers and family members or government officials.
This time, the son of a paramount ruler in Eleme Kingdom, who was abducted from his residence on Saturday, worked his escaped from his abductor. He reportedly pulled a fast one on his captors and escaped.
Four gunmen had invaded Prince Awenakra's Okitin Drive residence and forcibly took him away to an unknown destination. His abduction occurred after a community leader, Chief Felix Odum, was kidnapped the previous day and released few hours later.
Family sources stated that no ransom was paid before his release.