Nigerian kidnappers seized the wife of a prominent businessman and former candidate for governor in the southeastern Nigerian state of Imo as she left a church service, police said Monday.
“Mrs. Stella Odimegwu was abducted on Sunday by some 30 gunmen who overpowered her as she came out of a church service at Asa Ubirielem,” a senior police officer told AFP.
The woman’s husband, Festus Odimegwu, a former managing director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, ran for Imo state’s governorship in 2007 on the ticket of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but lost.
Kidnapping for ransom, which occurs frequently in Nigeria’s southern oil hub, has recently spread across the vast west African country of 150 million people.
Most hostages are released unharmed after a few days or weeks, often when a ransom is paid.