“We just got the report and immediately swung into action to secure her freedom,” said Mr. Akhigbe. “Our men are on the trail of the hoodlums. The 90-year old [woman] was abducted from her residence in the early hours of Wednesday,” he added.
Florentina Paulker, the 90-year-old mother of Senator Emmanuel Paulker who represents Bayelsa Central at the National Assembly, was kidnapped in the early hours of today, the second time the elderly woman would be seized by ransom-seeking kidnappers.
Mrs. Paulker was abducted in February 2010.
Her son, Emmanuel Paulker, is a PDP senator and chairman of the Senate committee on petroleum and upstream privatization.
Earlier today, Alex Akhigbe, the spokesman of the Bayelsa police command, confirmed the latest abduction of the senator’s mother. He said the gunmen who kidnapped the woman struck around 2:50 a.m. on Wednesday.
“We just got the report and immediately swung into action to secure her freedom,” said Mr. Akhigbe. “Our men are on the trail of the hoodlums. The 90-year old [woman] was abducted from her residence in the early hours of Wednesday,” he added.
According to the police spokesman, “We cannot be deterred as our commitment to secure lives and property in Bayelsa is total.” He said that the police last week “repelled an attack on an oil installation by pirates in the Gbarain area.”
A source close to the family of the abducted elderly woman told SaharaReporters that some gunmen had stormed the victim’s residence in Opollo-Epie area of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. “They fired some warning shots to scare residents of the neighborhood before taking her away to an unknown destination,” the source said.
Other residents of the Opollo-Epie area of Yenagoa said that they heard several gunshots just before 3 a.m. They said they woke up to hear that the senator’s mother had been kidnapped yet again.
“I heard gunshots and the cries of people early in the morning and somebody just told me that it was the old woman that was kidnapped,” said one resident who demanded not to be identified.
“We all live in fear here,” said another resident, recalling that Mrs. Paulker had been kidnapped in 2010.
In 2010, Mrs. Paulker was freed after eight days in the custody of her captors following a shootout between security agents and her abductors. One of her kidnappers died in the exchange of fire with security agents who rescued her.
A family source told SaharaReporters that the elderly woman’s abductors had yet to demand any ransom as at the time of speaking to our correspondent.
The security situation in Bayelsa State continues to deteriorate with a spate of kidnappings and armed attacks by sea pirates.
Bayelsa is the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan.