Among the unspecified number of people kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Thursday in Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka Express Road, Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, were a Senior Magistrate, Mrs. Dorathy Uchechi Odo, a former Secretary to the Enugu State Government, Dr. Dan Shere, a former commissioner, Matthew Idu, and a lawyer, Mr. Foster Ugwuok
The ugly incident happened on the Enugu-Nsukka New Road last Thursday.
It was claimed on Sunday that a certain number of UNN students who had returned to university following the protracted ASUU strike had also been kidnapped. A number of kidnappings were reportedly committed along that same stretch of road sometime in September.
The magistrate who presides over Magistrate Court 2 in Nsukka was abducted as she traveled there from the state capital. She reportedly took a while to get back to work, which led her employees to call, and she just said she wasn’t seen, only for them to discover later that she had been kidnapped.
Shere, a medical doctor who served under the administration of former Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani was travelling to Nsukka for a meeting when the gunmen attacked him alongside other travellers.
One of the survivors, who shared a video of the attack, said the gunmen were about eight in number.
“They shot severally at our vehicle; one of us was hit by the bullets. But our driver managed to move on. We succeeded in taking the victim to the hospital,” he narrated while thanking God for saving him and four others from the same community.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the kidnappers, who are said to be Fulani herdsmen, have increased their ransom demand on those they earlier picked on Sunday.
“They earlier demanded the sum of N2m on one of the victims but they have now increased it to N30m. They search the phones of the victims to know their status,” the source said.
Returning students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who were abducted on Sunday are also yet to be freed.
The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Enugu State Police Command, DSP Daniel Ndukwe is yet to react on the issue.