By Anayo Okoli & Olasunkanmi Akoni with Agency reports
UMUAHIA—INSPECTOR-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, yesterday, ordered the Abia and Akwa Ibom commands to fish out abductors of the journalists in the area.

This came just as the national leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, expressed optimism that the abducted journalists may be released any moment from now following advanced negotiations already reached with the kidnappers.

The Lagos NUJ Chairman, Wahab Oba, along with Mr. Adolphus Okonkwo, Sylva Okereke, Shola Oyeyipo and their driver, Mr. Azeez Abdulraf, were kidnapped by gunmen at Umuafouka junction, near Ukwakiri, in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State.

Onovo, who gave the order during a courtesy visit on Governor Theodore Orji, said the kidnappers went too far to abduct the journalists, whom he described as watch-dogs of the society.

He said: “I want to sound a note of warning that the gradual approach of the police in tackling the crime should not be taken as a sign of weakness. We are only responding to the ideals of a democratic dispensation. Since they decided to dare us we are out to fight them measure for measure.”

Onovo who appealed to the people to bear with the police, urged the kidnappers to face the reality by surrendering the journalists, their arms and themselves.

While urging the support of the people and government of the state in the operation code-named “Ihe” (Light), he advised Ngwa people to warn their siblings to surrender to avoid blame.

Evaluation of operations

Onovo said that he was in Abia to evaluate the operations of the 10,000 policemen deployed to the South-East and expressed regret that most of the crimes were centred on Aba.

He, however, noted that the arrival of the policemen had led to a decline in cases of kidnapping, noting that the abduction of the journalists was one of the isolated cases the police would tackle to achieve freedom.

The IGP noted that kidnapping had affected the economic well-being of the states, where the crime was pronounced.

Responding, Governor Orji expressed regret that the crime, which, he said, was technologically driven had become the order of the day and noted that nobody was happy about it.

He said: “Since it is new, it is going to take time to fight. The crime is embarrassing, Abia is inconvenienced and the Federal Government too. They have hurt us, we have to retaliate to make this place free.”

Orji who appealed to the kidnappers to release the journalists now, assured the IGP that the administration would continue to assist the police in fighting crime because “security is a job which everyone has to be involved.”

Meantime,  The Nigerian Governor’s Forum, NGF, has condemned the abduction of four journalists and their driver in Abia State, just as it called on the Federal Government to do all within its power to secure the release of the abducted men.

Chairman of the Forum and Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who described kidnapping as a national embarrassment, urged the Federal Government to urgently do something about the state of insecurity in the country.

Saraki said: “If journalists of all segments of the society could be kidnapped, then no one else is safe. Something urgent has to be done about the security situation of the country.”

He enjoined the kidnappers to release the abducted men unconditionally, noting that it was morally unethical for their poor dependants to cough out N250 million demanded as ransom.

The governor urged the Federal Government to compel the GSM service providers to be alive to their responsibilities, wondering why none of the service providers was able to give any clue that could lead to the arrest of the abductors since Sunday.

He, however, appealed to the police and other security agencies to join forces to secure the release of the journalists in order to bring relief to their respective families.

Hope rises for the release of abducted journalists

The national leadership of the NUJ, yesterday, expressed optimism that the abducted journalists may be released any moment from now following advanced negotiations already reached with the kidnappers.

NUJ National President, Alhaji Muhammed Garuba, represented by the union’s Deputy National President, Mr. Rotimi Obamuwagun, told families of the kidnapped journalists that their loved ones, whom he said were in high spirit at the time the kidnappers spoke with Garuba in the early hours of yesterday, were safe.

Obamuwagun said the delay in effecting their release was caused by certain processes which must be fulfilled, stressing that the leadership of the union was currently in Abia State to dialogue with the state governor on how the captives would be released from their abductors.

Noting that the union had spoken with the captives on phone through their captors, he appealed to the abductors to release the journalists. He said: “We don’t have the kind of money they are demanding. Even the National Secretariat of the union in Abuja doesn’t have that kind of money.”

Obamuwagun who lamented that journalists were now being kidnapped, urged the Federal Government and security agencies to immediately do something to arrest the level of insecurity in the country.

He said: “The leadership of NUJ is on top of the situation, we are collaborating with Abia State government. We are hopeful and very sure that within the next few hours, they (captives) will be released. We are on top of the situation.”

Its a sad commentary on nation’s security— AC

The Action Congress, AC, yesterday, described the kidnapping of the journalists in the course of their professional duties as a sad commentary on the state of the nation’s security, and called on the kidnappers to release them without delay.

In a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it was totally unacceptable that journalists, who by the nature of their profession had to be on the move, would now be hindered by the fear of abduction.

It said that journalists were already confronted with enough professional hazards to have to now add the extra burden of becoming targets of kidnappers, and called on the security agencies to act swiftly to trace and arrest those behind the abduction of the journalists.

The statement said: “It is bad enough that several journalists have been mowed down by unknown gunmen in recent times, without the security agencies being able to unravel any of the dastardly killings. Adding the fear of kidnapping to the journalists’ burden is an unbearable yoke.’’

While calling on the federal and state governments to take the worsening cases of kidnapping as a challenge and tackle the menace decisively, the party said: “To the best of our knowledge, Nigeria is not yet a failed state, despite the unflattering rating of the country among those nations that are likely to fail. But the unbridled kidnappings, armed robberies and other crimes being perpetrated with impunity across the country do not show a country that is at peace, or a government that is in charge.”