Posted by By GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka and DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi on
Few hours after Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Cordelia Ego Uzozie and her son, Kelechi, regained freedom after four days in captivity, a prominent businessman, Chief Pius Ogbuawa, has been kidnapped in Anambra State.
•Bizman taken away
Few hours after Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Cordelia Ego Uzozie and her son, Kelechi, regained freedom after four days in captivity, a prominent businessman, Chief Pius Ogbuawa, has been kidnapped in Anambra State.
The multimillionaire, who is the owner of the popular Ogbuawa motorcycles and the founder of a church called The Church, at Nnewichi, was said to have been kidnapped on his way to a church service by the same gang believed to have snatched the commissioner.
He was reportedly taken away in his jeep by the abductors whose movement was traced to Obollafor, near Nsukka, in Enugu State.
A close friend of Ogbuawa, who pleaded anonymity, told newsmen: "Immediately it happened and we were informed, we started tracing the movement of the jeep through the tracker and we tracked it up to Obollafor before we lost the movement and I believe that they must have noticed that it was being tracked and disconnected the system. We believe that they moved to Nsugbe."
Confirming the kidnap of Ogbuawa, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. John Haruna, told newsmen that the police were aware of the development, revealing that it was the same gang which kidnapped the commissioner and her son that was responsible for the latest snatch.
He, however, said that a joint operation of the police and the military was being planned to ensure that the man was rescued without any harm, as in the case of the commissioner.
He said: "It is true we are working on it right now. It is quite unfortunate, but we believe it is the same gang that is responsible. We have a general idea who they are, where they are, and we are planning an operation jointly with the military and the SSS. We will get them, but we are also very, very careful not to do anything that will endanger the life of whoever is held captive by them, but we have a very clear idea who they are."
On where they would probably be, the police boss, who attended a security meeting in his office with the State Governor, Dame Virgy Etiaba and heads of others security agencies in the state over the unfolding development, said the abductors might not have returned to Nsugbe.
"They might not have come to Nsugbe. They have left Nsugbe and they are masters of the terrain. There are lots of bush tracks that link Nsugbe and Nsukka area. We are aware they are operating between marshy land and the valley, all the way from Nsugbe, the banks of the river Niger and Anambra River up to Nsukka. It is a very vast land and there are very thick forests, we have an idea of how they move, how they operate," Haruna said.
He advised the people to take the issue of their security seriously and to give police useful information of events.
The police boss said: "We've advised the government to sensitize the populace. We will also do that. People should be very careful. Every person should consider his own security as important and we should also be our neighbour's keeper… the police can only respond when there is an information. If there is no report, we are not magicians to be there to know what has happened."
Meanwhile, there is fear and tension in Nnewi, the industrial city of Anambra as traders are on the edge over the businessman's abduction.
Speaking to Daily Sun on the development, the Chairman of Nnewi Auto Spare Parts Association (NASPA), Chief Alphonsus Umeh, said that businessmen in the area were all living in fear as no one knew who next would be victim. He noted that the association had lodged a formal report on the incident to the police and hoped that something urgent would be done to rescue Ogbuawa and safeguard the people of the state from the hands of kidnappers.