Gunmen Kidnap 2 LG Chairmen in Kogi
From Wole Ayodele in Lokoja, 08.07.2009

Chairmen of Igalamela/ Odolu Local Government Council, Hon. Ernest Abah, and Yagba West of Kogi State, Hon. Ropo Asala, were yesterday kidnapped by gunmen at a hotel in Kabba.
The duo had gone to the town to attend the monthly meeting of council chairmen in the state.
Also, three of the police orderlies attached to the chairmen were killed by the gunmen, while the police killed one of the kidnappers.
The gunmen had arrived the hotel at about 7am in two Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Toyota Hilux vehicles armed with sophisticated weapons.
The Personal Assistant (P.A.) to the Chairman of Okene Local Government, Hon. Yahaya Karaku, simply identified as Yakubu, and his driver, who sustained serious injuries, were taken to the Specialist Hospital in Lokoja for treatment.
One of the council chairmen, who narrated the incident to THISDAY in Lokoja on condition of anonymity, said he was in the bathroom when he heard movements at the back of his room and peeped through the window.
He said he saw some of his colleagues who were met at the entrance on their way out of the hotel and were directed by the kidnappers to kneel down and raise their hands in submission.
According to him, a police orderly had earlier fired and killed one of the kidnappers, while the gunmen responded swiftly with their more sophisticated weapons and killed three of the police orderlies, while Karaku’s P.A, Yakubu, and the driver were hit by stray bullets from the gunmen.
The kidnappers were said to have used the public address system in the police vehicle to call all the remaining chairmen in the hotel to come out on their own volition and threatened to kill anyone of them found in the room.
THISDAY gathered that it was at that point that most of the chairmen went out of their rooms and were directed to lie down on the floor.
“At this point, I sneaked out of my room through the terrace and jumped over the wall of the hotel into a nearby bush and that was where I stayed till they eventually departed in some of the vehicles belonging to my colleagues after abandoning their own vehicles. It was indeed a harrowing experience,” revealed the council chairman.
The monthly meeting of the chairmen, the hosting of which is rotated among the councils, was on Wednesday night followed by a get-together party which lasted till the early hours of yesterday and was said to have been attended by 17 of the 21 chairmen in the state.
Those absent included the Chairmen of Koton-Karfe, Ibrahim Shaba; Ajaokuta, Samson Bako; Ibaji, Abraham Uchola; and Olamaboro, Yunusa Olofu.
Confirming the incident, the state Acting Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Magaji, stated that the kidnappers came from Ekiti State where they had kidnapped some people whom they moved from their own vehicles into other vehicles.
He added that the two police vehicles used by the gang had been recovered as efforts were being made to trace the kidnappers.
When THISDAY called Yagba West Chairman’s phone, it was picked by a man with a husky voice who responded thus: “Who are you and who do you want to speak to?”
The line thereafter went dead and was eventually switched off.
As at the time of filing the report, the chairmen were at a closed door meeting with the state Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, while the Acting Police Commissioner, Magaji, was seen arriving the Government House ostensibly to brief the governor of developments.
THISDAY gathered last night that the kidnappers called the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Toluwaju Faniyi, with Abbah’s phone and demanded N60 million ransom for the kidnapped chairmen.