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Ex-commissioner, soldier kidnapped in Bayelsa

By Julius Osahon, Yenagoa
15 January 2018   |   2:47 am
Mrs. Marie Ebikake, former Transport Commissioner during the first term tenure of Governor Seriake Dickson, was yesterday abducted by gun-throttling hoodlums at her family home in Igbogene, Yenagoa.

Seriake Dickson

Mrs. Marie Ebikake, former Transport Commissioner during the first term tenure of Governor Seriake Dickson, was yesterday abducted by gun-throttling hoodlums at her family home in Igbogene, Yenagoa.She was kidnapped at around 1:30a.m. on Sunday, after the gunmen gained forceful entrance into her compound.

Her abduction is coming a day after suspected sea pirate along the Foropa-Gbarain route of the southern Ijaw creek abducted a soldier simply identified as Rotimi, who was on his way to Yenagoa, while the boat driver was shot in the shoulder.

According to reports, the suspected sea pirates attacked the boat conveying the soldier and two other persons to Yenagoa, shot the boat driver and took away the soldier. They also stole the boat engine, but however left behind the female passenger.Mrs. Ebikake, an indigene of Brass Local Government Area and a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), resigned as Commissioner during the run-up to the re-election of Seriake Dickson over political dispute between the governor and wife of the former president, Patience Jonathan. She has since returned to the fold of the party where she is a key member of the Contact and Reconciliation committee of the PDP in the state.

Confirming the abduction, one of her aides, Timi Onbuo, said the gunmen went away with her phones and that of her husband but said no lives was lost. He lamented that on January 10, few days before her abduction, some armed men had invaded her country home in Twon-brass and vandalized the palatial residence.

It was also gathered that though she was not home during the earlier invasion, the armed men destroyed the bullet proof doors and performed strange fetish sacrifice with raw eggs broken on the vehicle and doors.

The Caretaker Chairman of Brass Local Government Area, Victor Isiah, and the member of the state House of Assembly representing Brass constituency 2, Alfred Belemote Watson, while confirming the development in a statement issued online, described the abduction as shocking and condemnable.

Spokesman for the Bayelsa police command, AsImin Butswat, said manhunt has been launched to apprehend the perpetrators.Meanwhile, a senior employee of the Nigeria Content and Development Monitoring board (NCDMB), Mr. Numodogio Micah, who was abducted by sea pirates operating within the waterways has regain his freedom.

Numudogio was abducted and whisked away to an unknown destination on January 5 along the Brass-Nembe waterways. His abductors were said to have contacted his family and demanded N30 million ransom to set him free.Though family members refused to confirm if any ransom was paid, a leader of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Amiebi Turner, who disclosed the news, condemned the kidnap of the NCDMB worker and urged the victim not to be traumatised by the incident.

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