King Anderson Zidafamo, the 91-year-old father of the Bayelsa State�s Accountant-General, Mr. Thomas Zidafamo, kidnapped by militants on December 19, regained his freedom on Saturday.
The nonagenarian was kidnapped at gunpoint, at his palace in coastal Bulu-Orua hometown in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The paramount ruler had earlier been moved by the AG to the state capital to stay with him, following threats to kidnap him by some unnamed persons, but was taken hostage shortly after his return to his hometown.
The state Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, announced the release of the AG�s father, at a mini reception for Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan at the Government House, Yenagoa.
The AG�s father, according to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ebimo Amungo, was found wandering at Ogboinbiri in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The CPS said the people immediately alerted the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, led by Maj.-Gen Lawrence Ngubane.
�The JTF later handed over the AG�s father to operatives of the State Security Service.
Amungo said the kidnappers became uncomfortable after the JTF, members of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, Bayelsa chapter, led by Chief James Jephthah, and the freedom fighters who signed the peace agreement with the Bayelsa government on December 6, went on their trail.
The CPS added that since there was no negotiation with the militants, which would have led to the payment of ransoms to them, they became frustrated and opted to abandon the paramount ruler.
As at press time on Saturday, the AG�s father was still on his way from the coastal community by boat, to Yenagoa, the state capital.
The VP, who recently lost his 81-year-old father, Chief Lawrence Ebele Jonathan, who hailed from Otuoke in Ogbia LGA, is the immediate past governor of the state.
Jonathan condemned hostage taking and militancy, hoping that the kidnap of the Bayelsa AG�s father would be the last.
Sylva also lamented that the VP�s father would not have died, if he had not relocated from Bayelsa, following threats by militants to kidnap the parents of top government officials.
Militants had on May 16, bombed the private duplex of the VP at Otuoke. The VP, therefore had to relocate his father to the Presidential Villa (Aso Rock), Abuja in the night of December 12.
Dec302007