UNKNOWN gunmen who abducted renowned author, Captain Elechi Amadi, on Monday night in his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday night released him to his family.
Following the public outrage over the abduction, Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi had ordered security agencies in the state to expand their dragnet and ensure the speedy release of the novelist.
A source in Aluu close to Amadi’s family, Mr. Innocent Ekwulo, confirmed to The Guardian that the writer was brought home last night by security agents. The details of the release were still sketchy at press time.
The spokesperson of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, also confirmed the release but said the JTF was not aware if ransom was paid to secure the release of the elder statesman.
Musa said: “He was abducted at about 9.00 p.m. (on Monday) and has therefore spent nine hours in the hands of his abductors. It is the standing tradition of the JTF Operation Flush Out III not to pay ransom, as that will assist to seriously discourage making the trade attractive. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, ransom has not been paid. I wish to thank those who assisted in the release of the victim.”
The news of the abduction had elicited sharp condemnation of literary icons and contemporaries of Amadi such as Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and others.
Reacting via electronic mail yesterday to the unfolding kidnap drama, Soyinka, said that it was an “unconscionable and unpardonable” act to hold the literary giant for whatever reason.
He added that it is: “Totally unconscionable and unpardonable, if true. I have constantly deplored kidnapping as an unacceptable aspect of conflict and have stated this bluntly to militant leaders of the Delta whom I have occasionally met, most especially during the visit of the Nobel Commission to the Delta two years ago.
“The question however is, who did the kidnapping? The familiar mercenaries, opportunists and extortionists that often infiltrate the arena of any struggle? Or even other sponsored forces determined to discredit a cause? We need to get to the heart of this latest aberration”.
The Nobel laureate added: “In the meantime, I urge the kidnappers to release this venerated author and teacher without delay and without pre-conditions. It is abominable conduct, and the literary community will regard it as a deliberate act of assault, no less reprehensible than the acts of state violence against writers under military dictatorships, and will respond accordingly.
“The kidnapping of innocents in any conflict, be they known or unknown to the world, can never be condoned. No harm must come to Elechi”, he said.
The gunmen had abducted Amadi from his country home at Aluu in Obio-Akpor Local Council Area of Rivers State.
The state government, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and the Aluu Council of Chiefs denounced the abduction, which they described as a shame and an insult to the psyche of the entire Rivers people.
Also, Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, denounced the abduction, saying it diminished the Niger Delta struggle for justice, and betrayed public sympathy for the genuine grievances of the people of the region.
Narrating how Amadi was abducted, his wife, Dora, said her husband was in the sitting room with some members of his family watching television on Monday at about 9.00 p.m. when they heard a knock. And without any hesitation, the writer directed that the men should be ushered in to see him.
But as soon as they entered the sitting room, she said the callers brought out guns and directed that Amadi, who had a loin cloth around his waist, should go inside his room and get dressed properly because he was about to be taken hostage.
The 75-year old literary icon, according to Mrs. Amadi, did not resist. He quietly went inside his room, dressed up and followed the three men who later drove off in a Toyota Hilux and Mazda car to an unknown destination.
Amadi did not have any security personnel attached to him as at the time of his abduction.
One of Nigeria’s early novelists and dramatists, Amadi had through his books, The Concubine (1966), The Great Ponds (1969), and The Slave (1978), explicate the life and values of the traditional village society. Amadi received his degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1959.
Amadi’s early novels, like Chinua Achebe’s, are set in his traditional African world, but they deal with timeless societies which are not poisoned by the effects of colonialism, rationalism or modern change.
From 1984 to 1987, he was writer-in-residence and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the College of Education in Port Harcourt. In 1989 and 1990, he served as Commissioner of Lands and Housing. Amadi was awarded in 1973 the International Writers Programme grant, and in 1992 he received the Rivers State Silver Jubilee Merit award.
Scores of Ikwerre chiefs, particularly from the Aluu clan, besieged the writer’s residence yesterday morning to sympathise with his family.
Rivers State government has condemned the abduction, which it described as not just a shame, but an insult to the psyche of the people of the state.
Acting Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Blessing Wikina, questioned the rationale behind the abduction of the prized intellectual. He described the kidnap as most embarrassing to the Rivers State government.
Wikina said: “It is an unwelcomed shame that while our intellectuals are celebrated all over the world by their contemporaries and those who appreciate greatness, here we make them objects of shame, humiliation and disgrace by people who call themselves Niger Delta freedom fighters.”
He stated that Amadi was an asthmatic patient and demanded that he should not be denied access to his medications.
Col. Musa, who confirmed the abduction, described the motive as “pecuniary.”
He said: “Information at the disposal of the JTF Operation Flush Out III indicated that one Captain Elechi Amadi (rtd) was abducted by yet-to-be identified gunmen at about 900hrs (Monday) in his hometown, Aluu, at the outskirts of Port Harcourt city. The motive for the abduction is pecuniary.”
President, ANA Rivers State chapter, Dr. Miesoinuna Minima, described Amadi’s abduction as morally offensive as the renowned writer has contributed immensely to knowledge and advancement of mankind.
Minima also appealed to the civil society and security agencies to help stamp out the menace of abduction in the Niger Delta.
Meanwhile, in a statement by Mr. Deify Ola, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Sylva, in Yenagoa, Sylva said: “Elechi Amadi is a world literary figure and an icon of the Niger Delta. A renowned writer, he is one of those the world looks up to in trying to appreciate the social reality in the Niger Delta. This treatment meted out to him certainly diminishes the Niger Delta struggle before the world. It also reduces us as a people and must be condemned in the strongest term possible.”
Sylva said: “Never in the history of Nigeria has the Niger Delta had it as good as in the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua era. With a serving Nigerian Vice President from the region, a Niger Delta Ministry, and a couple of ministers from the Niger Delta, President Yar’Adua has demonstrated sincere commitment to resolving the age-long Niger Delta question.
The governor appealed to the youths of the Niger Delta to eschew criminality in all forms and embark on activities that would make them reap from the wind of change.