Edo CP, Mohammed DanMallam

Unknown gunmen have reportedly kidnapped a former chairman of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Akoko-Edo branch, Alhaji Jimoh Olumoye.

It was gathered that Alhaji Olumoye was abducted along Igarra-Okpe Road on Sunday afternoon while driving in his car to pick his children from the farm.

It was gathered that children of the victim raised the alarm when they saw their father’s car with the doors opened and his phones abandoned.

A family source who craved anonymity, said the family has lodged a formal complaint at the Igarra police station.

The source said: “His children had gone to the farm early in the morning and he promised to go and pick them in the afternoon before he would attend his family meeting.

“The children waited endlessly for their father and when they did not see him, decided to trek. On their way home, they met his car on the road with the four doors opened and his mobile phone abandoned. After searching for their father fruitlessly, they decided to come home to inform the family.

“We have been praying for his safety, we are worried because he is a civil servant who also farms to augment whatever he is earning as a civil servant. We are appealing that his abductors release him unhurt. He has an aged mother and everybody is scared of breaking the news to her, we are really worried.”

It was gathered that several vigilance groups in Igarra, Ojah, Ogugu and environs in Akoko-Edo local government area and their counterparts in Owan East have been mobilized to comb the forests around the area.

A member of the vigilance group said, “It was only the State Security Service that responded to our call immediately we heard of the incident and called them. We have mobilised our members and we are trying to track them down in the forests so they would move out to other states close to us.

As at the time of writing this report, neither the Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr. Mohammed DanMallam, nor the Command’s spokesman, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, could be reached for comments.