From Judex Okoro, Calabar
Gunmen have continued to terrorise innocent citizens along Calabar-Ikom highway in Cross River State, abducting over 20 persons in three months, with several millions of naira paid as ransom by victims.
The Calabar-Ikom highway has become a den of kidnappers and bandits, with attacks since November 15, 2022, when nine travellers were abducted in the Okomita axis of the highway. Since then, travellers have not known peace as they travel with trepidation and prayers for safety in spite of repeated assurances from the state government to police the road.
Investigations by Daily Sun showed that, between November 2022 and March this year, at least 20 persons have been abducted, with millions of naira paid as ransom, just as several others have sustained various injuries resulting from hoodlums’ gunshots and beatings.
Daily Sun found that the hoodlums first struck along the Calabar-Ikom highway on November 18, 2022, when two medical doctors and five other health workers were abducted along Akamkpa-Uyanga road while on their way back to Ogoja after attending a workshop in Calabar. About N2m was paid as ransom to secure their release.
The gunmen, on December 6, 2022, attacked the former chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mr. Omaga Odo, in the same Okomita axis of the Calabar-Ikom federal road and riddled his car with bullets even as he escaped.
The gun-toting hoodlums, on December 7, 2022, blocked the Iwuru end of the Calabar-Ikom highway and abducted former accountant-general of Cross River under Governor Donald Duke, Mrs. Rose Bassey, and three others. About N27m was paid to secure their release. It was learnt that a popular evangelist in the state, Edim Edim Omin, was also shot during the process of abducting the four persons, but the evangelist escaped with bullet wounds and is receiving treatment at an undisclosed private clinic in Calabar.
Again, Mr. Kenneth Abang and his relative, Eunice, were kidnapped on Tuesday, February 7, at Iwuru, along the Calabar-Ikom highway, while travelling to Boki for his father’s burial. Abang, one of the aides of Hon. Chris Agibe, member representing Boik/Ikom federal constituency, was said to have paid an undisclosed sum of money to secure their freedom.
In the same February, the gunmen attacked the convoys of the former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr. Usani Uguru Usani, and chief of staff to the governor, Chief Martins Orim, in the Biase axis of the highway. Out of four kidnapped persons in Uguru’s convoy, one is yet to regain freedom.
Towards the end of February, the hoodlums went berserk as they barricaded the Akaravuni axis of Calabar-Ikom federal highway, obstructing free movement of vehicles and businesses along the highway. Some of the travellers, who spoke to Daily Sun on phone, said the bandits blocked the highway terrorising travellers, beating some, extorted some cash and whisked some into the bush.
A traveller, who gave her name as Blessing, said: “We were in public transport to Ikom and very close to Akparavuni in Biase axis, our driver pulled up after answering a call and told us that kidnappers have blocked the highway so he cannot go further. When the passengers asked him how he got the information, he said a fellow driver called him to turn back because there was danger on the road. So, we had to return to Calabar.”
However, the gunmen seem to be becoming more emboldened as they have been carrying out daily operations in the last one week, kidnapping passengers and shooting at innocent travellers. On Friday, March 17, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) deputy governorship candidate, Prince Agbor Onyi, an Assistant Superintendent of Nigeria Immigration Service, ASI Imojara Godwin Imojara, and two others were kidnapped along the Akparavuni in Biase axis of the Calabar-Ogoja Highway, Cross River State.
Our correspondent gathered that the incident occurred about 3:30pm on Thursday when Onyi, Imojara, Mrs. Sandra Egbung Odama and one Walter were travelling in a Toyota Corolla vehicle when the kidnappers struck and whisked them all away to an unknown destination. They were traveling to northern part of the state for the governorship and house of assembly elections. The victims were released on Tuesday, March 21 after about N2m was paid as ransom as against N200m initially demanded by the hoodlums.
Narrating his ordeals, the YPP deputy governorship candidate, Prince Agbor Onyi, said they were released in the earlier hours of Tuesday but that it was a terrible and terrifying experience. Onyi said the hoodlums demanded N50 million from each of their captives, but they ended up paying what they could afford even as he refused to disclose the amount for security reasons, adding that no security agencies came to their rescue.
A family member of the immigration officer confided in our reporter that they paid some money to secure the release of Imojara on Tuesday, March 21.
Speaking also on the incident, the State Chairman of Young Progressives Party, YPP, in Cross River State, Mr. Anthony Bissong, said: “I can confirm the release of the deputy governorship candidate of the party, Prince Agbor alongside three others. He was kidnapped two days before the governorship election held on Saturday 18 March 2023. Bissong announced on his Facebook page that Agbor was released on Tuesday.
“I finger the ‘dreaded Fulani militia’ as those behind the kidnap. The militiamen have reportedly taken over the Biase LGA forests in the guise of providing security to some mining firms. It is important and indeed urgent to reinforce the fact that we are living with the dreaded Fulani militia as our nefarious neighbors in Cross River State. The trailer park at Ibogo is a flashpoint and study center where the dreaded monsters use to study the nooks and crannies of our state.
“I call on all security agencies in Cross River State to mobilize and comb the entire Biase forest and all the neighboring LGAs up to the boundaries with the Republic of Cameroon. If this exercise is not carried out now, then in the nearest future, we may have to prepare to put up with the constant onslaught that will be unleashed by these AK49-wielding criminals”.
Reacting, the Cross River State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Irene Ugbo, said the command is yet to be briefed on the development.