Gunmen kidnap 5 dredging workers in Bayelsa creek

Five workers attached to a
dredging firm, BEKS KIMSE Nig. Ltd, have been
reportedly kidnapped by unknown gunmen
along the creek of Opuama in Southern Ijaw
Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. The kidnappers, it was learnt, are demanding
N30 million ransom before their captives would
be released. The dredging firm, sources told Vanguard, is
handling the shore protection and reclamation
work at the riverside Opuama town. The project, it was learnt, is being sponsored
by the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) to save the erosion troubled
community. Though information about the alleged kidnap
of the workers was sketchy, a community
source told Vanguard that they were seized in
the early hours of Friday. It was learnt that the abducted workers
identified as Inoku Godwin, Sam Ede, Jackson
Ibani, among others, are from Bayelsa and
Rivers states. They (gunmen) were said to have sporadically
shot into the air to scare away the natives from
coming to the aid of the workers. An indigene of the area said: “The workers
were seized by the gunmen who stormed the
dredger in a speedboat and disappeared with
their victims whose whereabouts are
unknown.”