Men of Nigerian Naval Base in Yenagoa on Thursday rescued a female kidnap victim abandoned by her abductors in the creeks of Southern Ijaw in Bayelsa.
Commodore Yakuku Wanbai, Commander of Nigerian Navy Base in Yenagoa, who confirmed the development, said that the kidnappers struck at about 2 am in Angiama-Gbene on Thursday.
“My men on patrol in the waterways got a distress call, and the gunboat headed to the scene of the incident where the kidnappers whose speedboat had developed a fault abandoned the victim and fled on sighting the patrol boat.
“My men rescued the woman and brought her to the base and in line with the existing interagency cooperation we are handing the woman over to the Police for preliminary investigations and reuniting her with the family,” Wanbai said.
Narrating her ordeal, Mrs. Tokoni TrustGod said kidnappers numbering 5 and armed with gun and machete had invaded her residence at Angiama Gbene in the early hours of Thursday and abducted her.
“They broke into the house and asked me if I was Professor Millionaire Ambowei’s sister and I told them that I wasn’t, they said that I was lying and took me away to the water side where they put me in a speedboat.
“When we got to Olagbene their boat had a fault and ran out of fuel when they saw an oncoming boat they fled into the bush and the people in the boat took me and hid me in the neighboring community.
“Shortly afterward the kidnappers who had fixed their boat came to the place I was kept and shot severally threatening to kill the people if I was not produced, so they brought me out and left for the waterside.
“We boarded the kidnappers’ boat again and heard the sound of the Navy gunboat, it was at this point that the kidnappers abandoned their boat, and when the Navy people came I cried out to them that I was the one held hostage.
“They took me in their boat and brought me to Yenagoa,” TrustGod said.
TrustGod said that Professor Millionaire Ambowei was her husband’s brother who is based in Port Harcourt.
The Yenagoa Naval Base Commander, Wanbai handed over the freed victim to Mr James Ejure, a CSP from the Criminal Investigation Department, and Mr Richard Ogwuche of the Anti-Kidnap Squad of Bayelsa Police Command.
Ejure, who commended the Navy for the feat, pledged that the Police will conduct discrete investigations with a view to apprehending the hoodlums.