The family of the Benue State Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Ekpe Ogbu, is to pay five million naira in order to get him out of captivity.
This is the demand put forward by his abductors.
A source said that the family of the abducted commissioner has been contacted by his abductors.
According to the source, the abductors contacted the commissioner’s family through his phone.
The commissioner was kidnapped, alongside his driver, aide and one other at Adankari village along the Otukpo/Ado Road on Sunday.
Catherine Anene, Benue State Police Public Relations Officer stated that the commissioner was abducted around 6:20 pm.
Anene said in a statement on Monday that police officers on patrol sighted the victim’s vehicle parked by a forest area along Adankari village, Otukpo-Ado Road.
According to the statement: “Shortly after the vehicle was recovered, information was received that the Benue State Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Ekpe Ogbu, who travelled to Utonkon for burial was travelling back with three other persons through the same route and was no longer reachable. Immediately, police teams were deployed in search of the victims.”
It explained that the Commissioner of Police, Benue State, CP Wale Abass, who visited the scene for an on-the-spot assessment, asked for adequate security on the road to forestall further occurrences when he identified a new route linking the forest to the highway.
The commissioner had called on members of Adankari to volunteer information to the police to assist them in the ongoing operation.
