“Get rich quick, or die
trying” seems to be the motto of dare devil youths who have taken to arms
and kidnapping in order to survive. Everywhere in the geographical locations of
Nigeria, kidnapping – abductions, ritual killings and armed robbery is the
order of the day. Before it used to be that the kidnappers focused on the rich
and popular. But from the recent trends in the spate of kidnapping, they seem
to have shifted their focus to school children, pastors, and even relations of
the well to do folks in the society. Many victims have died in the process –
forever lost.
Security
operatives are doing all that they know and can to curb this menace, but it seems to be growing by the day with a careless abandon to evil –
not minding the repercussions by the perpetuators of such dastardly act. It
seems as though new groups of abductors or kidnappers are springing up every
day.
According to The
Guardian News, Armed gunmen on Tuesday 5th April, 2016, shot dead a soldier attached to the military
task force code named ‘Operation Pulo Shield’ and abducted two expatriates
workers with Setraco construction company, during a shootout along the
Ogbia-Nembe road in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The incident, which threw road users and
passersby along the Opume Junction axis of Ogbia Local Government and the
Bassanbiri/Ogbolomabiri axis of Nembe local council area into
pandemonium occurred at about 8am on Tuesday morning.
The killing of the two soldiers came just a day
after authorities of the Joint Force operating in the region disclosed
that its troops have rescued a soldier who was kidnapped by suspected sea
pirates along the Nembe creek on the 24th of March.
The soldier who has spent ten days in the
kidnappers den was rescued by troops from Sector 2 of the command during a
search and rescue Operation in the creek around Otakeme Community in Ogbia
Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Though it could not be ascertained if the
killing of the soldiers was in retaliation for the four sea pirates killed by
the task force in the course of rescuing their colleagues from their den,
eyewitnesses said the operation was carefully planned by the gunmen as they
took the soldiers unaware.
One of the eyewitnesses confirmed our
correspondent that the soldiers, who were attached as security detail to the
Setraco personnel on the site of the road project, were suddenly attacked with
sophisticated weapons from the bushes in what could be described as an
ambush and did not notice until it was too late.
Though no other life was lost some of the
indigenes of Nembe kingdom, who were returning to Yenagoa en-route Opume road,
were caught in the early morning gun battle between the gunmen and the soldiers.
A Hilux utility vehicle driver identified as Monday,
who witnessed the scene, said it was a like a movie scene. “The soldiers were
shooting and the armed men were shooting. We later saw signs of blood
everywhere when the soldiers removed the blood soaked colleague and some
expatriates.”
Attempts to get confirmation from the spokesman
of the Bayelsa Police Command, Asimin Butswat failed as his phone rang out and
replies were not sent to different messages sent.
But the Coordinator of the Joint Media Centre of
the Security Task Force, Col. Isa Ado, denied knowledge of the incident and
stated in a terse text message that “Not confirmed as no such report at our
disposal at the moment.”
We only hope that this is not an attempt to bury
such a case and do nothing about it.
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