Charles Onyekamao and Emeka Osondu
6 November 2009
analysis
Onitsha/ Akwa — He was kidnapped on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by a five-man gang of gunmen who seized him from his dinner table at his Isuofia residence in Aguata Local Government Area of the state.
78-years-old Pa Simeon Soludo, father of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the February 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra State, was, however, released on Wednesday night, precisely ten days after his capture.
Details of the behind-the-scene negotiations with his abductors leading to his release were unclear last night but Pa Soludo reunited with his family around
10 pm on Wednesday.
As early as 10 am yesterday, newsmen who had gotten the information early in the day had thronged the Soludo family house in Isuofia to try and confirm its authenticity or otherwise.
But security men keeping guard at the compound sold a dummy. "Pa Soludo had been rescued from his kidnappers but he is sleeping," one of them said. Then, the wait began.
However, about 10.55am, a black Peugeot 406 Salon car with registration number AZ182-RSH pulled at a corner of the compound with two persons and the driver.
Now, an old man with a slight bald wearing a glittering white jumper lace, adorning a red cap for titled men in Igbo land, a black sandals and a swagger stick alighted from the back seat of the car.
It was Pa Simeon Soludo. But journalists were promptly stopped from talking to him or taking shots by security personnel and one of his sons, Kenneth, who helped him into the house.
The man looked somehow frail and Kenneth said he was still in shock and needed some rests.
It was actually gathered that Pa Soludo and those who accompanied him were returning from a hospital where he had gone for first aid medical check-up.
Family members declined comments on their patriarch's release when THISDAY visited the compound at Isuofia.
A dependable family source who preferred anonymity, however, said about N10 million ransom was eventually paid to the kidnappers before the release of Pa Soludo.
According to the source, the money was said to have been dropped for the kidnappers at midnight on Wednesday somewhere at Oko, Orumba North Local Government Area of the state, hometown of former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme.
THISDAY checks revealed that the kidnappers dropped off Pa Soludo that faithful Wednesday night at Uga, some 10 kilometres from Isuofia, though in the same Aguata Local Government Area.
Soludo has, however, expressed gratitude to God for the release of his father.
He said: "I'm very excited and I give all glory and adoration to God Almighty. I think God has answered the prayers of millions of Anambra people and Nigerians. So, we simply say to God be the glory.
"We are emboldened by the experience that we passed through for the nine days he was in captivity."
So we have resolved to serve Anambra and to serve Nigerians. And it has emboldened us also to make kidnapping a history in the state and wherever we can find it.
"It's a harrowing experience and you don't wish that for your enemies so to speak. But it brought home realities about insecurity of lives and property in the state and the need for all of us to rededicate our lives to make it better than we met it."
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