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Nigeria: Militants Demanded N50 Million Ransom for Our Release, Says Released Ondo Chiefs

Dayo Johnson

23 August 2008

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Lagos — MILITANTS who kidnapped the six Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ilaje area of Ondo State including Chairman of State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) Chief Adewale Omojuwa requested for N50m before they were released late on Thursday.

Narrating his ordeal to newsmen on phone yesterday the embattled Chairman of the Commission, Chief Omojuwa who confirmed the request of the militants was however silent on whether any money was paid to the militants.

According to him, "As usual, they were demanding for money. They said we should give them N50 million but we told them that we could not get that kind of money and that as true sons of Ilaje, we should be concerned about our people.

"They told us that they were not financially empowered and that they needed assistance. They also threatened to destroy oil installations in the area both onshore and offshore but we told them that we would look into their demands and we pacified them on their threat to destroy installations."

Omojuwa who said they were not tortured pointed out that they were released late Thursday in batches after some mental and psychological agonies.

"We have decided to go into investigation and we have discovered that some people are behind the scene and necessary security agencies had been briefed and they have started investigating. We are optimistic that those behind the scene will be apprehended. We were not tortured. We had a very useful time with them."

Speaking on the incident, Commander of the Forward Operational Base of the Nigerian Navy in Igbokoda, Jobson Jaja, said the preliminary investigation revealed that the incident involved an insider.

"When we saw the situation, which could have been avoided had the OSOPADEC team followed our security measures, we radioed men of the amphibious brigade of the Nigerian Army for reinforcement and we got some marine police to do a coordinated rescue mission," he said.

Jaja, who described the incident as "an embarrassment to my person and the security formation in my area of operation" said the traditional rulers, in order to prevent a bloody encounter, had called him to stay action till after their intervention. Six others including five Commissioners of the Commission and the Director of Finance and Administration DFA of the commission were kidnapped by the militants on their way to a stakeholder's forum in Awoye.

The Commissioners that were released late on Thursday and yesterday respectively by the militants under the name "Guama Boys" include Kukute Adewale, Raphael Nomiye, Temidire Olowoparija, Timothy Akinbode, Gbenga Ale and Abass Fagbemi.

The militants who stormed the area in 16 boats to kidnap the politicians shot sporadically to create tension in the areas. Their abductors who laid ambush for them on the high sea disarmed their security personnel's and took away their rifles and fled to the creeks only to discover later that they were taken to Delta State.

Meanwhile, normalcy has returned to Ugbonla where some youths protested the laying off of some of them by a construction company working on the Multi billion naira Adagbakuja reclamation project. Reports had it that traditional rulers in the communities have intervened and asked the youths who work in the company to sheathe their swords.

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