The Joint Task Force, JTF, Operation Delta Safe, OPDS on Wednesday launched a manhunt for Karowei Gbakumor, who allegedly kidnapped four Britons in Enekorogha Community, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
OPDS Commander, Rear Admiral Suleiman Apochi disclosed this when he visited the Community.
Apochi charged the people of Enekorogha Community to rise up and take lead in the search for the fugitive kidnap kingpin whom he said was one of them.
Apochi added that the OPDS would stand with them throughout the process, providing the needed support leading to the arrest of the kidnap kingpin
Apochi who was flanked by the Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Delta, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, and the Commander of the Sector 2 of the OPDS, Colonel Alhassan Grema noted that the incident would set the community and its neighbors who had been beneficiaries of the free medical services of the abducted Britons, backward health-wise.
Apochi described the incident as an international embarrassment to Nigeria.
“Now you see that the armed forces are not here to harm you or sent to kill you, but to protect you and make life conducive for you. All we do is to make the environment safe for your people. Nobody has come to take from you what belongs to you, but you people think when we come to attack you or harm people, now you see that your enemies are living next to you.
“This unfortunate incident is an international embarrassment, Besides that, who is losing? Just begin to count the number of deaths from the
day those expatriates were kidnapped till date. These were people who were giving treatments free of charge and the drugs they give you are original.
“I want you people to mobilize and find Karowei, find him and let us know where to get him so he can be arrested. You people seem to be afraid of him and that’s why you don’t want to lead us to him. I want the youths of this community to brace up to their responsibility, find him and hand him over to us. Whatever assistance you need, you will have it”, he assured.
The Chairman of Enekorogha Community, Prince Michael Ogodobiri, said the community knew what Karowei had done to them because they knew what the absence of the British missionaries meant to them.
He, however, promised that the community would not fail in its responsibility to bring the kidnap kingpin to justice, assuring that nobody in the community was afraid of Karowei.
He pointed out that the wanted kidnap gang leader is not from Enekorogha.
Four British missionaries, David and Shirley Donovan, Ian Squire and Alanna Carson were abducted from their abode in Enekorogha community on October 13, 2017. Squire died in the kidnappers’ den where the other three were later freed.
