10th June, 2012
Nigerian police on Sunday vowed to rescue international footballer Christian Obodo unhurt after he was kidnapped near the oil city of Warri on Saturday.
“We confirm that Obodo was kidnapped yesterday (Saturday) in Effurum (near Warri). We are making all diligent efforts to ensure that he is rescued unhurt,” Delta State police spokesman Charles Muka said.
“We are very hopeful that we will rescue him alive. We are working in combination with all other security agencies, including local vigilante groups and communities. We are combing everywhere.”
He said security agencies are working to ensure Obodo’s release without the payment of a ransom demanded by his abductors.
Obodo’s family has earlier also confirmed his adbuction.
However there is a conflicting report about when precisely Obodo was captured. While the police PRo claimed Saturday, the commissioner of police in the state, Ikechukwu Aduba, said it was done on Friday night.
Aduba told NAN that Obodo ought to have informed his command that he was coming to spend some time in the state.
Aduba said that everyone knew the security situation in the country and the need for adequate protection but noted that Ogbodo did not let the police know that he was around.
“We provide security for foreigners in this country and in this state, particularly in Warri area. What will then stop us from providing security for our own people?
“But this young man came into the state without informing us. I was, therefore, embarrassed this morning, Saturday, when I heard of the incident,” he said.
Aduba recalled that when he was in Jos also as Police Commissioner, he provided security for Mikel Obi’s father “and even for Mikel, whenever he was around.
“If we knew a footballer of that class was in the state and he let us know of his movement, we would have provided him with security.’’
The family said Obodo, who last season played for Lecce in Italy’s Serie A, was driving alone in his car following a visit to a relative when he was taken by unknown gunmen.
The oil city of Warri is in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region, where kidnapping is commonplace.
Media reports on Sunday said that he was seized in front of a church in Effurum and driven away to an unknown destination.
Obodo, 28, is a Nigerian international midfielder who spent last season on loan at southern Italian club Lecce from fellow Serie A side Udinese.
Lecce were relegated to Serie B on May 13 after finishing third from bottom of Italy’s top flight.
Obodo is the first Nigerian footballer to be abducted.
Before now, relations of Nigerian footballers have been seized, and released later.
The brother of Everton defender Joseph Yobo was kidnapped in 2008 and freed days later, while last year the father of Chelsea midfielder John Mikel Obi was also abducted in the central city of Jos before being freed after a police raid.
A brief statement from Lecce on Obodo’s abduction said: “We hope the situation can be resolved as soon as possible in the best possible way.”
Obodo’s brother, Kenneth Obodo, who is also a footballer in Italy and is currently in Nigeria, was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA as saying: “Christian is fine. We are in touch with the kidnappers, who want some money.
“We can’t give them more than 100,000 euros ($125,000). Unfortunately these things happen in our country.”
His brother-in-law, Obidike Okechukwu, was quoted by ANSA as saying that the kidnappers had asked for a ransom of 150,000 euros.