Hoodlums kidnap Soludo’s kinsman
By EMMANUEL OBE
Published: Sunday, 15 Mar 2009

The spate of kidnapping increased in Anambra State on Saturday with the abduction of a retired deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr. Patrick Obidike.

He was allegedly kidnapped by four armed men at his country home, Isuofia, in Aguata Local Government area.

Isuofia is the hometown of the Central Bank Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. But it could not be confirmed if the victim had any other relationship with him.

The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Mohammed Abbas, who confirmed the story to Sunday Punch, said he had deployed his men to comb the bushes around Isuofia and neighbouring communities so as to fish the kidnappers and their victim.

The kidnap came just a few days after the traditional ruler of Nawfia, Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo, led a team to rescue his sister, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Oli, and her three- year-old daughter, Somtochukwu, from kidnappers in the town.

The police search in the bushes around the community was predicated on the belief that the kidnappers might not be very far away from the town, having used a bush track near Obidike‘s home.

Abbas said the report of the incident was prompt and the police believed that the kidnappers might not have gone far, and could be in the bush around the place.

”I received the report about 11am. They used an untarred road. They were four armed boys in a Toyota Camry.

”Police are right now combing the bushes because of recent the kidnappers no longer take their victims to the urban areas where people could see them. They take them to the bushes,” Abbas said.

Our source said all the roads leading in and out of the town had been cordoned off by the police who were frantically searching for the kidnappers and their victim.

No news has yet been received from the kidnappers on the motive of their action.

Kidnap for ransom has become a common business in in the state where criminals reap millions of naira from the rich whose relations are victims of their act.

In the Nawfia kidnap, Igwe Nwankwo said two of the kidnappers were arrested and handed over to the police.

The woman and her daughter were kidnapped last Monday night near their home in Enugwu-Ukwu, a neighbouring town to Nawfia and taken to a hideout from where a ransom of N15m was demanded.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200903159102829

What if he was Soludo's kinsman?

The headline says the victim is "Soludo's kinsman", but the report is unsure if the victim and Soludo are related. What a misleading headline.