Kidnappers Demand N6m To Free Doctor

While millions of Nigerians were celebrating Workers’ Day on Sunday, gun-totting kidnappers stormed the residence of a private medical practitioner at Ekpoma, Edo State, South-South Nigeria, Dr. Paul Oriaifo and abducted him.

The kidnappers have demanded a ransom of N6 million which Dr. Oriaifo’s family said they could not afford.

P.M.NEWS gathered that the victim was in his house on Sunday morning at Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State when his abductors came in an unmarked vehicle. They shot into the air to scare residents.

The hoodlums, in a commando style, abducted and drove Oriaifo away in their vehicle. Reacting to the incident, Edo State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, called on GovernorAdams Oshiomhole to tackle state of insecurity in the state.

They urged security agencies in the state to make use of intelligence information from the populace in order to curb crime in the locality.

In a press release jointly signed by the state chairman of the association, Dr. Philip Ugbodaga and its secretary, Dr. Emmanuel Ighodalo, NMA noted: “The inability to curb this menace is a failure of intelligence gathering. While we join the rest of the world to celebrate the killing of Osama Bin Laden as a result of sound intelligence network by the US, we recommend undercover intelligence operations by the various security agencies to deal with the problem of kidnapping.”

The NMA further observed that reports of kidnapping and armed robbery were becoming a daily occurrence.

The doctors advised Governor Oshiomhole to borrow a leaf from his counterpart in Lagos State in curbing the menace of criminals in the state.

—Yomi Obaditan/ Benin City