13th September, 2018
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Barely five days after kidnappers abducted a pregnant woman in Bitie Community in Tai Local government area of Rivers State, a medical doctor, Dr. Matthew Olubiyi was on Wednesday abducted in his consulting room in the hospital in the same community.
Eyewitnesses said “the abductors swooped on him while he was attending to patients. At gunpoint, he was dragged out and ordered into a waiting get-away car and they zoomed off”.
The Coordinator of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, in Tai local government area, Mr. Mgbor Clarkson, who spoke on phone lamented that Bitie community is now tensed up because of the two abductions within five days.
“The doctor was attending to patients when kidnappers swooped on him at gunpoint and whisked him away. A nursing sister on ground called to inform me. Patients have to scamper for their safety.
“The security situation in Bitie community is becoming unbearable. The security in Tai is getting out of hand and cannot be left entirely in the hands of Tai people alone. Residents in Bitie are worried about the what is happening in the community within a period of the interval of five days. ”
Similarly, some residents of Alakahia Community in Obio-Akpor local government area, a suburb of Port Harcourt have equally raised an alarm over the incessant attacks of hoodlums in broad daylight without challenge by security agencies.
Alakahia is one of host communities to the University of Port Harcourt and majority of off-campus students reside there. They too have been victims of the attacks.
They said that hoodlums rob in broad daylight targeting phones, laptops and other valuables. They appealed for regular police patrols.
A female resident told our correspondent that the kidnappers ”move in a gang of about 12 boys, raiding shops, abducting and raping girls at will.”
The Rivers State Police Command has not commented on the incidents despite repeated enquiries by our reporter to the spokesman of the command, DSP Nnamdi Omoni.