By Chidi Nkwopara, OWERRI.
Unknown gunmen have reportedly kidnapped a serving female magistrate in Imo State, Mrs. P. U. Adikibe, at Umuapu in Ohaji/Egbema local council area of Imo State.
Vanguard equally gathered that the magistrate’s driver was also taken hostage with his boss.
The story that made the rounds yesterday in Owerri, had it that the lady was kidnapped on her way home from work.
An Owerri based legal practitioner, who spoke on strict grounds of anonymity, said that “Mrs. Adikibe is in charge of the Ihiagwa Magistrate Court, and was on her way home when the hoodlums struck”.
When contacted on his mobile telephone line, the Commissioner of Police, CP, Mr. Taiwo Lakanu, who confirmed the incident, however disclosed that the woman and her driver were rescued less than 12 hours later and reunited with their families.
“When the Police Command got wind of the incident, I immediately raised a rescue team headed by myself and went after the hoodlums”, Lakanu said.
According to the CP, “we went after the kidnappers and when they couldn’t keep the pace, they abandoned the magistrate’s driver and the car and took the away”.
Continuing, the CP said that the driver disclosed the escape route of the hoodlums.
“The driver’s narrative led us to the forest where the magistrate was quarantined by her captors. At the end of the encounter, she was rescued unhurt and reunited with her family”, Lakanu recounted.
While calling on patriotic citizens to report people of questionable characters in their communities to the police for appropriate action, the CP however reasoned that criminals do not live in the moon, but among the people.
“If patriots fail to report such people to the police, they or their relations may be the next victims”, the CP said.
