Eight members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who were kidnapped last weekend by armed militants in Arogbo, Ese-Odo Local Government area of Ondo State have been released.
The militant youths, who claimed to belong to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), had alleged that it entered into a N500 million agreement with the PDP to provide cover for the party�s rigging machinery during last elections.
The release of the captives came on the heels of calls by the Ijaw Rights Protection Vanguard that the Federal Government should put a stop to the criminality that has taken over the entire Niger Delta region.
In a statement by its leader, Atimati Oju-Oju, the group said concerted efforts should be made by governments, traditional and political leaders to create a mechanism that would effectively control the unbridled criminality �that is now the lot of some of our youths with the attendant negative effects on our socio-political existence.�
Eleven members of the party were initially abducted during a party meeting in Arogbo, but the youths released three of them by Wednesday with the threat that the rest would not be released until a N500 million ransom is paid.
But the state government insisted that it signed no pact with the youths, who the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Isaac Kekemeke, described as �criminally minded miscreants with illegal arms.�
The police had also declared two leaders of the group wanted with a ransome of N2 million cash reward for anybody that could offer information that could lead to their arrest and freedom of the hostages.
Indication that the hostages would be freed yesterday emerged on Thursday when through a text message to journalists in Akure, the militants said �after serious passionate appeals by highly respectable Ijaw leaders, the council of MEND in Ondo State is considering their release shortly.�
The Ijaw leaders named in the text were the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Timi Alaibe, Alhaji Asari Dokubo and Senator David Brigidi, Chairman, Federal Committee on Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Niger Delta.
Sep152007