TWO children, Fransisca Ehileme, aged six and her five-year-old brother, Francis, both children of an oil worker, were on Monday abducted by gunmen on their way to school around Rumuigbo junction in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Security sources informed the Nigerian Tribune in Port Harcourt on Monday that the father of the children, Mr. Maximus Ehileme, a production superintendent with Elf Petroleum, was taking them to school in his car at about 6:50 a.m. when the hoodlums blocked his car near Obi Wali Road junction by Rumu-Echieolu Street.
A source from the State Security Service (SSS) told the Nigerian Tribune that no contact had been established with the kidnappers yet, but added that the SSS had already taken up the case and would be handling the negotiations for the kids� release.
�The kidnappers blocked the children�s father�s car at the junction. One of them was carrying a machine gun, while the other one was armed with a pistol,� said the SSS source.
He added that the SSS had been on their trail since the case was reported.
The Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, confirmed the incident.
According to him, �the father was taking the children to school when gun-wielding men blocked him from the back and in front and forced him to stop his car on the road.
�The gunmen thereafter took the children away. We have decided that nobody will pay them ransom. Let them keep the children and when they are tired, they will release them.�