Abductors of CPS to Edo Deputy Gov demand N20m ransom

By SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN—Chief Press Secretary to Edo State Deputy Governor, Mr. Kelly Odaro, who was abducted Saturday evening by armed men suspected to be kidnappers, have made a demand for N20 million ransom.

Odaro was abducted at  6:30p.m. while he was about driving into his compound at Ikpoba Hill, Benin City, shortly after he left the state Secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Reservation Road, Benin City.

An eyewitness told Vanguard that Odaro’s abductors came on a motorcycle. They were said to have dragged him out of his car and taken him away in a waiting vehicle. Mrs. Odaro, who was visibly shocked, narrated: “I was surprised when people in our street came to call me that my husband had been kidnapped very close to our house by unknown gunmen.

“The car doors were open and the engine was still running. The helmet used by one of the men who came on the motorcycle and  my husband’s shoe were on the ground close to the car but they went away with his phone.”

Vanguard gathered from a family source that the kidnappers were demanding N20 million ransom.

Contacted, Edo State Police spokesman, Mr Anthony Airhuoyo, said the command was aware of the situation and had since swung into action.