By 21 hours 56 minutes ago
TWELVE days after gunmen suspected to be kidnappers abducted the daughter of the Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Utibeabasi Ikoiwak, her whereabouts are still unknown.
Also, the whereabouts of the Chairman of Tobros Nigeria Limited, Anthony Awurigwe, remain unknown five days after he was abducted.
Awurigwe is a beer dealer and a major distributor with Guinness Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries.
The gunmen stormed Awurigwe’s store around 9am on Monday in a Volkswagen Jetta car and abducted the businessman.
Utibeabasi is 11 and a Junior Secondary School 1 student at Imperial Seconday School , Eket. Her father, Aniedi Ikoiwak, is the REC of Rivers State.
According to an eyewitness, the gunmen invaded Abundant Life Ministry, Eket, Akwa Ibom State on Sunday June 19, 2011 and whisked away the 11-year-old child when the attempt to kidnap the REC failed.
A member of Ikoiwak’s family, who preferred anonymity, said the REC was in Akwa Ibom to check the wellbeing of his family when the incident happened.
Shortly after Utebiabasi’s abduction, the gunmen established contact with the family members and demanded N100m ransom.
According to an eyewitness, two of the gunmen went into the store with two AK 47 rifles where they met Awurigwe, who was in front of his store reading newspaper.
The gunmen were said to have pointed the rifles at Awurigwe and directed him into a waiting car, where a driver was waiting. The kidnappers forced the businessman into the boot of the vehicle, shot into the air to scare passers-by before speeding to an unknown location.
Ikoiwak had raised the alarm, saying there was no way he could raise such an amount being a civil servant.
The REC had also appealed to the security agencies to double their efforts in ensuring the release of his daughter, even though the State Police Command said they had intensified efforts in getting Utebiabasi from the kidnappers’ den.
Speaking with The Nation, he said that kidnappers were still holding his daughter, a minor for that matter.
His words: "If I have the money, what will keep me from giving them? I appeal to Nigerians to join me in begging these people to release my 11-year-old daughter. She is just a minor. Certain people just think that everybody in Nigeria is bad.
"The kidnappers are still insisting that if the N100m ransom is not paid, they will continue to hold Utibeabasi.
"For some days now, they have not been contacting the family, we don’t even know what is going on. It is still the same stories. I just hope that my daughter is safe. I am begging the kidnappers in Jesus’ name to release my daughter."
At Awurigwe’s store, business activities were low at the time The Nation correspondent visited his store along Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo, the state capital.
Most of the salesmen wore hard face, thinking of what would become the fate of their benefactor, who had stayed in the kidnappers’ hideout for four days.
The victim’s eldest son, Emeka, said the abductors were yet to contact the family members.
The visibly worried son appealed to the kidnappers to release his father.
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