Gunmen have abducted a retired civil servant and prominent leader in
Umudibia community in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State,
Chief Raymond Irechukwu.
He was abducted at his home at Umuofocha village opposite Wintersuit
Hotel on Nekede Polytechnic-Ihiagwa Road about 1am on Sunday.
It was gathered that the kidnappers are now demanding N10 million
ransom from the victim’s family.
Family sources said the kidnappers used a ladder to climb into
Irechukwu’s one-storey building. They gained access to his room
through a window.
Witnesses, who were returning from a night club, said Irechukwu was
blindfolded while being led to a waiting motorcycle at gunpoint.
Three days after he was kidnapped, no clue has been established as to
his whereabouts.
Some of the sympathisers, who thronged the home of the victim, told
our correspondent that there was no police patrol in the area as many
criminals and cult members usually move freely about the school
environment unchallenged.
“Dangerous criminals are now living in the environment and we want the
police to intensify effort in patrolling the area to protect the
indigenes. It is no longer safe to live in one’s house if criminals
can now come to a populated environment to kidnap people
unchallenged,” one of them said.
Other community sources said the kidnap might not be unconnected with
crisis which dogged the New Yam Festival in the community in which
Irechukwu was the chairman of the occasion.
However, when contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer
(PPRO), DSP Andrew Enwerem, confirmed the incident.
He said: “We received the report of the incident of hoodlums numbering
three who attacked the victim around 1.30am. We are on the trail of
the hoodlums.”
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