Enaye Abah, Chairman of Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State was today kidnapped by unidentified gunmen.
The gunmen who were said to have been two in number took Abah to an unknown destination after they trailed him, overtook his car and blocked him.
According to reports from eyewitnesses, the firepower of the two gunmen, who were shooting sporadically to scare away people around the area, overpowered the
security escort attached to the local government chairman.
Abah is the Council Chairman of Ogbia, where President Jonathan hails from and he played a notable role for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the State Assembly elections, when violence in the area led to the elections being declared inconclusive.
Asinim Butswat, Police Spokesman for Bayelsa Command confirmed the incident saying that the command had alerted Rivers and Delta Commands of the development.
He said the Police got a distress call that the council chairman was in distress on Wednesday morning and dispatched men to rescue him.
“We were made to believe that the council chairman was under threat along Otuasega-Okaka Expressway, so our first reaction was towards Otuasega, but we got there to find out that the gunmen had escaped through Okaka waterside,” the police spokesperson said.
He explained that the kidnappers transferred Abah to a blue Mazda car after they abducted him in his car. They later burnt the Mazda car when they got to Okaka waterside and escaped with a waiting speedboat into the river.
Butswat said that the Police was on the trail of the kidnappers.
Meanwhile, the motive behind the kidnapping remains unclear, as the kidnappers have not established any link with the family of the hostage but there are fears that the abduction was politically motivated.
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