By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

THE worry of most politicians ahead of an election is the credibility of the process and impartiality of the umpire. But in Delta State, the biggest worry of politicians right now is not the election process; it is how to outwit  the profit-making kidnap syndicates, who are desperate to get their own share from them before they are elected into office.

In some cases, the kidnappers don’t even care if their target is seeking an elective office or not. All that matters to them is the lucrative political office by their political victim and his ability to pay millions of naira as ransom.

The next thing is to plot how to kidnap the man’s wife, children or mother, after which, they cajole and threaten them on the phone to pay ransom failing which the victim would be killed.

However, it is not all the kidnap cases in the state that had politicians and their family members as targets. Some bankers, lawyers and entrepreneurs had been kidnapped before now and the common denominator is cash.

Last month, February 18 to be precise, kidnappers seized Miss Erere Darah, a nine-year-old daughter of the former director-general of the Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan Campaign Organization, Prof. G. G. Darah on her way to the school, and kept her in their den for 12 days, all in their bid to force her father, who they believed, was financially loaded as governor’s campaign manager during the governorship run to part with some cool millions naira.

A politician in Udu missed being kidnapped by politician who trailed his SUV car for hours, not knowing that he was not inside. They lamented when they caught up with the vehicle and met only the driver that he man would not pay ransom if they keep the driver, and decided to release the driver on sympathy grounds.

Political undertone
The governor and chief security officer of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is in a position to know, declared recently that most of the kidnapping in recent time in the state had political undertone.

Those who thought he was just making a political statement lambasted him for suggesting so, but the People Redemption Governorship Candidate in the state, Comrade Emmanuel Odafe Igbini corroborated the governor’s position in an interview with Saturday Vanguard. “Yes, most of the kidnappings have political undertone.

I stated this at the Vanguard/Nigeria Police –organized seminar at Asaba recently that politicians who hire unemployed youths to cause commotion in the state all in the name of politics should be checked”.

He said politicians should play the game according to the rules and not bring in violence into the conduct of the elections in the state in April. As for seeking extra-security, he said, “It is those who had stolen public money that should be afraid.

I have said it many times in the past that those seeking public office should subject themselves to probe by the EFCC so that we know who is who, it is those with criminal records that are involved in this kidnapping activities because they want to intimidate others”.

Desperate measures
by politicians
Delta State Police spokesman, Charles Muka, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, confirmed to Vanguard that politicians were in frantic search for security for their overall safety, but not necessarily because of kidnappers.

Saturday Vanguard reliably gathered, however, that some of the politicians have hired some  youths to provide security for them in and around their houses and the private army follow them about during their campaigns.

Am not disturbed, says Obule
The Senatorial Candidate of the Justice Party in Delta Central Senatorial District, Chief Charles Obule, however, told Saturday Vanguard, he is “not worried by kidnappers in the state; they know those they are looking for. They know those that stole money and those are the people they are going for”.

How we can stop kidnappers in  Sapele- Omolubi
PDP chairmanship aspirant in Warri North, Comarade Omolubi Newuwumi who spoke to Saturday Vanguard on the spate of kidnapping in the state, said it was a disturbing development but the matter was being handled.

Omolubi who is based in Sapele said kidnappers and other criminals were operating in the area, saying, “Sapele is a town that has about six strategic exit and entry points, which if well secured and policed, will automatically make the territory a no-go-area for kidnappers”.

Amori refuses to negotiate with kidnappers
The latest target in the state is the Senatorial Candidate of the PDP in Delta Central Senatorial District, Chief Ighoyota Amori, whose 97-year-old mother, Mrs. Obiireyibo Amori, was abducted from her home.

The kidnap syndicate, which, apparently, because of the heat on them by the newly inaugurated Anti –Kidnapping Task Force of the Delta Waterways Security Committee, DWSC, in the Warri metropolis, relocated to Sapele area from where they stormed Mosogar, about a fortnight ago. The task force had since it was inaugurated being patrolling the length and breadth of Warri.

The sole aim of the kidnappers of Amori’s mother was to fleece him of his money and to scare the politician, they told him on phone to pay N100 million or drop his senatorial ambition. Amori refused to play ball with them even when they reduced the ransom on their own to N50 million. His mother was rescued on Tuesday by the Anti-Kidnapping Task Force of the Delta Waterways Security Committee.

DWSC threatens abductors
Meanwhile, the Anti-Kidnapping Task Force, which released some hotlines and warned members of the public not to pay ransom to kidnappers in the state, was on the trail of the gangsters.

The Delta Waterways task force finally tracked down the kidnappers and forced them to release Amori’s mother on Tuesday. Chief Amori who confirmed the release of his mother when contacted on phone by Saturday Vanguard, Wednesday said, “I am grateful to all those who facilitated her release. She was not harmed; she was brought back to me, right here, at my residence in Mosogar”.

A member of the DWSC who briefed Saturday Vanguard on the release of Mrs. Amori said, “Upon intelligence information that the kidnappers have some of their men in Sapele from where they were making phone calls to Chief Amori, demanding for ransom, the committee detailed some of its members to track them down”.

“One of the kidnappers was trailed on Monday morning, but he escaped arrest. A member of the committee sustained injury in the bid to arrest the fleeing kidnapper”, he added.

According to the source, “The committee was, however, able to identify the gang and sent a message to them through an emissary that all the gang members would be arrested if Amori’s mother was not released within 24 hours”.

“They were afraid because the emissary named the entire members of the gang and told them that they would be hunted down with the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger-Delta, Navy, SSS and Police”, he said.

It was gathered that later in the day when the kidnapper that evaded arrest got to the hideout where the politician’s mother was kept and narrated his ordeal to the gang, particularly, the threat by the Anti-Kidnapping Task Force team that pursued him earlier in the day , they knew that the game was up and decided to release the woman without ransom.

The DWSC member told Saturday Vanguard, “We received a call some hours later that they had released the woman and that we should come to a particular spot in the creek to receive her. We sent a team there and they brought the woman to Sapele”.

“We first went to the residence of the House of Assembly member, representing Sapele constituency, Chief Monday Igbuya, who was a victim of kidnappers in the past, and later, all of us, went with him to Chief Amori’s residence to hand over his mother to him.

Chief Amori confirmed to Saturday Vanguard the role played by the DWSC team, saying, he refused to pay ransom to the kidnappers but when they kept calling him, he referred them to one of the DWSC members ( names withheld).

Chairman of the DWSC Anti-Kidnapping Task Force, Chief Boro Opudu said when contacted by Saturday Vanguard, “Kidnappers relocated from Warri when our task force was set up, thinking that we will not be able to get them, but we are telling members of the public that they should cooperate with us and not pay ransom to them.

If the public refuse to pay ransom, there will be no money for them to collect, and they will stop the business, that is the way I see it”.

He commended Chief Amori for heeding the plea of the task force with Deltans not to pay ransom to kidnappers and urged the public to report suspicious persons around their neighborhood to security agents for prompt action at any time.