From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Armed bandits operating around the Umunneochi/Lokpanata axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Highway have abducted seven indigenes of Isiugwu Ohafia, in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.
The incident happened at the now notorious section of the expressway as the men were returning home. They, however, freed four of the abductees to go home, charging them to quickly find money and come for the release of their remaining three kinsmen or risk their being killed.
Daily Sun reliably gathered that the victims had, on Saturday, set out from their place of abode in Imo State, and were travelling early in the morning to beat the scheduled environmental sanitation exercise for the day.
However, luck ran out on them while they approached the Umunneochi area around 8am, as they heard a sound from a nearby bush and the driver slowed down to check if one of his vehicle tyres had burst. In the process, four armed men ran out from the bush and blocked their front, while another five took positions at the rear, leaving their vehicle in the middle to prevent them from escaping.
The seven men were immediately ordered to move into the bush where they trekked for several minutes before being stopped and beaten. Their belongings, including cell phones and cash, were taken away.
Our source said after a gruelling interrogation lasting for several hours, and beating to extract facts on who to contact and how to raise money for their release, four of them were set free and directed to go home and source funds to bring out the three still being held by their captors.
A relation of one of the released victims, who refused to make his name public, confirmed the incident, stressing that on hearing the kidnap of their townsmen, the entire village entered into prayers, asking God to intervene and make the bandits have a change of mind. He claimed that their fervent prayers led to the criminals rescinding their earlier decision to kill their captives.
The returnees returned home to assuage the villagers’ cries of woes that those that were abducted were between 10 and 15.
He disclosed that prayers were still ongoing to further ask God to spare the lives of those still in the bandits’ den, emphasising that efforts to maintain contact with the hoodlums had been frustrated, probably due to non-charging of their phone batteries, as the phones they used to initially contact the village belonged to those that were released.