TWO kids, Deborah and Francis Uduak, children of an executive officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, Mr. Sunday Uduak, have been kidnapped.
Their captors are demanding N10 million as ransom.
Besides, five days after their kidnap, the whereabouts of Mrs. Patricia Asita, wife of the lawmaker representing Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni-Ahoada West Federal Constituency, Mr. Asita and 11-year-old Chidi Nzerim, who were abducted in two separate attacks by hoodlums in Port Harcourt on Sunday remain unknown.
The Rivers State police Spokesperson, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, told The Guardian that Deborah (5) and Francis Uduak (3) were kidnapped by unknown gunmen from their home at Eleto Eleme in the early hours of yesterday.
The Guardian learnt from security sources that the bandits had gone to Uduak’s home probably to rob him because immediately they gained access to the house, the gunmen demanded money.
But when the money demanded was not forthcoming, the gunmen decided to kidnap the children despite a passionate plea by their parents. According to sources, the gunmen were infuriated by Uduak’s claim that he did not have money.
Efforts to reach the father of the children proved abortive. The motive behind the kidnap is yet to be ascertained. Barasua said the police were investigating the matter.
Security agents in Rivers State are yet to locate the whereabouts of Mrs. Asita and Chidi, who were seized in separate attacks by hoodlums in Port Harcourt on Sunday.
When The Guardian contacted Asita, he said the kidnappers of his wife were still demanding N50 million as ransom.
Sources close to Chidi’s parents said his kidnappers had threatened to kill him if his parents disclosed their interaction with them to reporters. The threat has made the boy’s father, Mr. Chidi Nzerim, Managing Director of an oil and gas firm, DMS Limited, located at Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, to decline being interviewed by reporters.
Chidi was kidnapped when his mother went to drop him off at Brookstone International School, Igrwuta-Ali on Sunday. The gunmen shot his mother on the leg and killed the driver of the car conveying him to school and a police escort attached to him.
Meanwhile, spokesperson of the Joint Task Force, Lt. Sagir Musa, has urged all kidnappers to have a rethink.
He said security agents in the state were working hard to ensure the release of Mrs. Asita and Chidi.