By Emma Amaize

WARRI— A  boat driver kidnapped, Monday, by suspected youths of Ogbe-Ijoh, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, Prince Ighomugy, over the beheading of an Ogbe-Ijoh youth, Samson Bebebo, last Saturday, has narrated how five Ijaw youths allegedly took him hostage.

Ighomugy, who hails from Ofagbe in Isoko area of the state, but resides at Aladja, Udu Local Government Area of the state, was released by his abductors on Tuesday following the intervention of the chairman of the Delta Waterways and Land Security Committee, DWLSC, Chief Boro Opudu.

He told Vanguard on phone moments after the Police Area Command, Warri, released him: “We were returning to Aladja with our boat at about 12.30 pm and decided to pass through Ogbe-Ijoh, where five men came to meet us, my friend, Khali and I. They said we should settle them, we did not quite understand what they meant by that, but before I knew it, woods emerged from nowhere and they started pounding me with them.

“My friend, also a boat driver, jumped into the river and escaped. They held me, saying that I am from Aladja, that we were the people that beheaded their brother and that they would behead me. I told them that I am not from Aladja, but from Ofagbe in Isoko.    “One of them said I was lying, that he knew me and had been seeing me in Aladja for many years now.

“They threatened to behead me like Aladja people allegedly did to their brother. They tied me like a crocodile after which they took me to a place I do not know and kept me. Later, I got to know that one Chief Opudu called to find out if they kidnapped anybody and when they told him yes, he asked them to release the person fast. I think that was how they took me to the Area Commander’s Office in Warri from where I was released.”

Meanwhile, there was celebration at Aladja, Tuesday night, as Prince rejoined his family and friends.

National Secretary of Urhobo Youth Leaders Association, Mr. Vincent Oyibode, who spoke to Vanguard on the kidnap, said the two men were not indigenes of Aladja, adding that the one that escaped is from Ughelli South and the other from Isoko.

He said: “My appeal is that elders and leaders from Ijaw nation should wade into the issue to give peace a chance, considering the long relationship of Ijaw and Urhobo. The crisis is unnecessary. The reason for all to embrace peace is important because innocent people, who are not from Aladja, are being killed.

“These people are only resident in Aladja, but they are not from there. If the crisis is not properly handled, it will escalate.