Nigeria: Kidnappers Monitor Police, Lie in Wait for Victims Under Rivers' Bridge

28 January 2025

Port Harcourt — While the Police are busy mounting surveillance for criminals, at the Okulu Aleto Bridge, in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, ransom-demanding, hostage takers monitor policemen to know the moment to strike and abduct victims on the East-West Road.

The kidnappers have made the dilapidated bridge connecting Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, with Ogoni communities and neighbouring Akwa Ibom State a death trap over the years.

Many motorists/passengers fleeing from the abductors who had turned the bridge into an ambush point have had the misfortune of skidding into the Okulu River, which makes it easier for the "boys" to pick up their victims and ferry them farther across the waterway.

This was the case some Mondays ago when a white Toyota Hilux carrying an expatriate and escorted by policemen slipped into the Okulu river while attempting to escape from suspected kidnappers.

How criminals track police

One villager, Peter Obari, told NDV that the Rivers Police Command has always deployed policemen around the rickety bridge because of repeated incidents of kidnapping.

He said: "When the kidnapping and robbery around that bridge got too much, police brought a team that stays around there. When the team resumed, the kidnapping around there stopped.

"But these days, the police leave there early. They do not stay till 9:00 pm. They come and leave anytime and because these boys know they are not steady, they attack when they know the police have left, and that was what happened on that Monday night."

Obari said drivers were afraid of passing the bridge in its present condition, and some that dared ended up in the river because the boys attacked them.

"In 2023, a truck belonging to a company operating in the area ran into the river, and they later pulled it out.

"A tricycle, popularly called Keke NAPEP, crashed into the river with its passengers in the early part of 2024, with one person dead."

Obari called on the contractor to complete the road and bridge. Though the Aleto Bridge is undergoing reconstruction, it remains a death trap.

Modus operandi

A villager, Obe, said the criminals and vandals intentionally removed the bridge railings to make it even more dangerous, adding that the deplorable state of the bridge aided the easy slide of vehicles into the river.

His words: "The kidnap gang anchors by the river to kidnap people on that bridge and ferry them away through the river to an unknown destination."

NDV learned that since the condition of the bridge deteriorated, the kidnappers took advantage of the rickety state of the facility to pick up their victims.

They station a boat in the river and move off with their victims once they abduct anybody.

A source noted: "Because of the ramshackle bridge, criminals come around the bridge to wait. This is because they know that drivers will always slow down there.

"When they kidnap people, they take them into a boat in the river and move away. This has happened many times. They do this because the bridge is in bad condition."

Gokpa, LG chair, mobilises the rescue operation

Following the latest incident, the Chairman of Eleme Local Government Area, Chief Brain Gokpa, mobilised the Nigerian Navy and other rescue agencies for rescue operations in the river. The rescue team found the van and the expatriate dead.

Gokpa noted that the victims were moving in a convoy of company workers when armed hoodlums suspected to be kidnappers, attacked them, and in a bid to evade the ambush, the van plunged into the river.

Police vow to fish out perpetrators

The new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olugbenga Adepoju, led the police team to the scene while the operation was underway and commended the local government chairman for his efforts.

The police confirmed the expatriate's identity as Mr. Gibson Reuben, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Rivers State Cassava Project Limited, who hailed from The Netherlands.

Adepoju ordered a full-scale investigation with the immediate arrest of the perpetrators of this reprehensible act, vowing to bring them to justice."

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