TWO council chairmen in Kogi State were, on Thursday, abducted by unknown gunmen while three policemen were also killed in the process.
The incident, which occurred at Optimal Hotel in Kabba, the tradtional seat of Okunland area of the state, according to another council chairman, also saw another three policemen critically injured. They were rushed to St. John Hospital in Kabba town.
The council chairmen were in the town for their monthly forum meeting and were about to leave on Thursday, when armed men, according to Ankpa Council chairman, Mr. Vincent Baba, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune, invaded the hotel between 7.00 a.m. and 7.30 a.m.
The abductors, according to him, came in two police vehicles equipped with gadgets and which they used to announce their arrival, adding that the armed men told them that they were aware of their presence in the hotel and ordered them to file out in their own interest.
Baba said that many of them instantly locked their rooms against the marauders, but unfortunately, two council chairmen who were about leaving the hotel, Honourables Earnest Abba, and Ropo Asala, of Igalamela and Yagba West Local Government areas of the state, were whisked away.
Baba told the Nigerian Tribune said that the strange visitors might have abducted some three people on their way from Ekiti, stressing that the dressing of one man suggested that he was a lawyer while that of the female suggested that she was a wife of a chief as, according to him, the woman dressed elegantly, stating that he sighted them when they were being dragged from the vehicles they came in to the two Hillux buses of the council chairmen.
The armed men were said to have come from Ekiti State and unmasked as they ransacked the hotel, lamenting the manner in which the policemen were shot in the head and buttocks for daring them.
The acting police commissioner in the state, Mallam Abdullahi Magaji, also confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that the abductors came from Ekiti State with three people already abducted, adding that one of them was brought down by his men and confirmed the death of the policemen.
The incident gave rise to an emergency security council meeting in Lokoja on Thursday while the incident had thrown the whole state into mourning as people gathered in groups discussing the incident.
Baba said: “As I’m speaking with you now, we just finished a meeting with the governor and we have not received any message about their whereabouts.”
Nigerian Tribune however, gathered that the kidnappers called an official of the state government, using the mobile phone number of one of their abductors, demanding N60 million as ransom before the two council bosses could be released.