James Sowole
23 August 2008
Akure — Chairman of Ondo State Oil Producing Area De-velopment Commission (OSOPADEC), Chief Adewale Omojuwa, said the militants who kidnaped him and five commissioners of the agency and its Director of Finance, Gbenga Ale had demanded the sum of N50 miliion as ransom before they could be released.
Omojuwa, who refused to disclose whether the commission paid up, said the agency found the demand of the militants outrageous and uncalled for. He claimed they were released after the intervention of the traditional rulers in the area.
The OSOPADEC chairman and other officials of the commission were kidnapped by the armed militants who waylaid their speed-boats on their way to a stakeholders' forum at Awoye community.
Narrating their ordeal in the hands of the abductors, Omojuwa said they were not tortured but added that they were released late Thursday in batches, after severe mental and psychological agony.
"Necessary security agencies have been briefed and they have started investigating. We are optimistic that those behind this will be apprehended," he said.
The chairman also said the militants' grouse that they were not empowered would be looked into by the commission. He claimed that they had been able to convince the militants not to carry out threats to destroy oil installations in the Ilaje Local Government.
Speaking on the incident, the Commander of the Forward Operational Base of the Nigerian Navy, Igbokoda, Jobson Jaja, said preliminary investigations revealed that the incident involved an insider.
According to him, the chairman and officials of OSOPADEC were initially to go in a convoy but somebody suggested the officials go separately.
Jaja said before his men could mobilize fully, the Obas had salvaged the situation, adding that the incident was an embarrassment to his person and the security formations in his area of operation.
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