Former President Goodluck Jonathan Refuses To Succumb Kidnappers Demands
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has refused to succumb to the demand of the kidnappers of his uncle, to secure his release. Chief Nengite, aged 72, a retired lecturer with the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, who is also foster father to the former President was abducted and whisked away from his Otuoke country home on February 17 alongside his younger cousin, Samuel Okies.
The former President insisted that he was not going to pay any ransom to the abductors. The Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr Peter Ogunyanwo who disclosed this in Yenagoa during the parade of 37 armed robbery and suspected kidnappers at the command headquarters hailed the position taken by Jonathan not to pay ransom so as to discourage kidnapping.
His words, “On the kidnap of the foster father of Former President Gooluck Jonathan, Chief Inegite, I have met several times with the former President on the matter and he has insisted that he is not going to pay ransom. “The kidnappers have reduced their ransom to about N2million but the former President said he would not pay ransom. We are on the trail of the kidnappers and we would get them.
“People should not pay ransom. Just like Governor Seriake Dickson also did not pay ransom for the freedom of his sister, people should be discouraged from paying ransom so that the business of kidnapping would stop.” The state police commissioner explained that since assumption of duty in Bayelsa, the command has put in place robust crime strategies which has culminated in the arrest of 37 suspects in different parts of the state. He noted that while criminal elements are devising various ways to beat security network to commit crime, the command is up to the task to combat crime.
Ogunyanwo who also disclosed that his men foiled a kidnap attempt of the newly sworn-in Chairman of the State Environmental sanitation Authority, Hon Robert Enogha, called on members of the public to come with useful information that would ensure that criminal elements are not allowed to operate in the state.