Medical Doctor Kidnapped In Port Harcourt

Dr. Chituru Orluweme, a medical consultant with the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Rivers State, has been kidnapped by gunmen.

The gunmen are demanding N15 million as ransom.

 It was learnt that Orluweme, who is the Head of Chemical Pathology of UPTH, was grabbed Monday evening by the armed men in Obiri Ikwerre axis in  Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State after close of work.

The victim’s elder brother, Mr. Onyekachi Orluweme who reported the case to the anti-kidnapping unit of the Rivers State Police Command explained that his brother who was on his way home from the UPTH stopped at a mechanic’s workshop at the Obiri Ikwerre bridge area, along the East-West Road, where he was abducted.“He was way back from work at the UPTH. He bought a car seat cover and stopped over at the workshop of his auto mechanic to fix the seat cover.
 
But when he got there, the mechanic was working on another vehicle, so my brother who had alighted from his car had to wait.
“It was while he was waiting that a Red Nissan car pulled up and some young men came out and forced him  into his vehicle and carried him away,” Orluweme narrated.

The victim’s brother further explained that the mechanic immediately alerted Chituru’s wife, who in turn informed him as the husband’s elder brother.

The kidnap of the medical consultant is coming at a time when the 80-year old mother of Nname Ewor, deputy leader of Rivers State House of Assembly, Madam Margaret Ewor, is still held hostage
 by her abductors.

She was abducted nine days ago from her residence in Ahoada- East Local Government Area of the state.
 Suleiman Abba, the state Commissioner of Police confirmed the abduction of the chemical pathologist and added that the police would do everything possible to ensure that the consultant and the 80-year old woman were unconditionally released.

 Meanwhile, lawmakers in the House of Assembly have appealed to the abductors of Madam Ewor to release him unconditionally. The lawmakers who took turns to speak on the issue on the floor of the house spoke passionately that the abductors should realise that there was no way the lawmaker could get N20 million.

By Nnamdi Felix/Portharcourt