Gunmen storm Jonathan's LGA, abduct Chairman

The peace in Ogbia, the local government area of President Goodluck Jonathan, was on Wednesday shattered after gunmen shot their way through the area and abducted the council's Chairman, Mr. Enaye Abah.

The suspected gang of kidnappers numbering about four reportedly waylaid the chairman along the Otuasega-Okaki road and barricaded his official vehicle, a Prado jeep.

His police orderly was said to have abandoned his boss and fled following deafening gunshots fired by the hoodlums.

The gunmen were said to have attacked the chairman with sophisticated guns and other weapons.

It was gathered that the abductors dragged him out of his vehicle at gunpoint and took him to Okarki in neighbouring Rivers State.

They reportedly whisked him away in a waiting speedboat.

A source said: 'The kidnappers rode in a Mazda car. On sighting the vehicle conveying the chairman, they blocked him with their car. The police orderly attached to the chairman came down from the vehicle fuming over the blockade.

'But on sighting heavy arms and on hearing the volley of gunshots released towards the vehicle, he scampered for safety, abandoned his principal and ran away.

'The armed men dragged the council Chairman from his vehicle and transferred him into a blue-coloured Mazda. They drove him away towards the waterside.

'At the waterside, he was taken to a waiting speedboat. The driver of the Blue Mazda was shot in the leg for refusing to follow the gunmen and their victim into the waiting speedboat.

'The Mazda was later set ablaze by the armed men along the waterside and the number plate taken away.'

Some relatives of the chairman said the council boss was on his way to attend an undisclosed meeting when the incident occurred.

The state's Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Asinim Butswat Astimin, said preliminary report showed that the abducted Chairman was ferried by his abductors towards the Abua waterways in Rivers State.

'Our men have been placed on red alert and we have put measures in place to rescue him,' he said. - The Nation.