LAGOS NOVEMBER 27TH (URHOBOTODAY)— The kidnappers of Pa Uroh Nelson Tempurah, father of Bayelsa State Commissioner for Tourism Development, Mr. Nelson Belief, have demanded for N98 million ransom before they would be set him free.
The septuagenarian was seized from his Minibeleu country home at Akassa on the Atlantic fringe of Brass last Wednesday by armed gunmen.
The heavily armed kidnappers were said to have stormed the coastal settlement in a speedboat at 2.56a.m.
It was, however, learnt that the gunmen contacted Mr. Belief Monday night, demanding for the N98 million ransom.
A source close to the troubled family told Vanguard that the kidnappers allowed the old man to speak with his son on phone.
The commissioner, who confirmed the development, said: “Yes. I spoke with my father yesterday” (Monday).
He also confirmed the N98 million ransom being demanded by the kidnappers.
The commissioner had, weekend, told Vanguard that he had handed over everything to God and had prayed for divine intervention, wondering why anybody would want to subject his aged father to such trauma.
He prayed God to cause confusion among his kidnappers to release his father unconditionally just as he expressed optimism in the ability of the security agencies to rise up to the occasion.
Contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alex Akhigbe, who confirmed that the kidnappers had established contact with their victim’s family, said the police are on the trail of the kidnappers.
He said: “We have deployed a crack team of operatives from the anti-kidnapping squad to strategic locations in the creeks and they are on the trail of the kidnappers. They would be fish out and brought to book.”
In another development, Delta State Government, yesterday, confirmed the kidnap of an expatriate engineer, Mr Haitham Jamarkami, a Syrian working for Palmyra Construction Company.
The Commissioner for Works, Chief Funkekeme Solomon, confirmed this to journalists when he visited the site of the construction company in Orhonor, Ethiope East Local Government Area.
He said that Jamarkami, who was abducted while on duty, was kidnapped around noon on Monday.
Solomon appealed to members of the community to assist security agencies with relevant information which could facilitate the rescue of the kidnapped expatriate.
The commissioner also appealed to construction firms in the state not to be deterred by the incident, assuring them that the state government would provide adequate security for them.
In his remarks, Mr. Sunday Onoriode, the Transition Chairman of Ethiope East council, appealed to the community not to thwart the efforts of the state government in ensuring that the dividends of democracy got to the grassroots.
Onoriode, however, bemoaned the incidence of kidnapping in the area, appealing to members of the community to cooperate with security agencies in efforts to secure the release of the abducted engineer and ensure the culprits’ arrest.