Fear grips Omoku community as gunmen abduct ex-cult leader’s mother in R’State

The people of Omoku community in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LocalGovernment Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State are now living under tension following the abduction, Sunday morning, of the mother of a former cult leader, Ejima Igwedibia, also known as Don Wani, by unknown gunmen, in Omoku Town. The community is afraid that the development might trigger off another season of cult wars in the area.
The ex-cult leader, Igwedibia, who had earlier embraced the state government amnesty programme said his mother told him that morning that she wanted to attend a meeting, only for him to be called on telephone some minutes later that she had been kidnapped by some gunmen.

Narrating his ordeal, Igwedibia said: “My mother came up to me this morning and told me that she wanted to attend a meeting in town. There is peace in ONELGA. There is no crisis in ONELGA any more. Some people called me some minutes after she left for the meeting that my mother has been kidnapped.

“I learnt that they blindfolded my mother. They blindfolded my driver. And the kidnappers also blindfolded my boys who I sent to accompany her to the meeting. I am not in a good mood now. I am not happy that my mother who just left my compound for a meeting has been kidnapped without any reason.”

The former cult leader appealed to security operatives to intensify efforts to secure the release of his mother unhurt by her abductors. He expressed dismay at the sudden rise of crime and criminality in ONELGA after seven months of peace in the area following the state government amnesty programme.
He said: “There is peace in ONELGA today. What the abductors have done is a threat to my life. I am very shocked that my people are fighting against me. I am not for war, again. I am not for violence, again. I have embraced the state government’s amnesty.

“I am appealing to the security agencies to ensure that my mother is released. I don’t want anything that will bring violence in ONELGA again,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, said that he was waiting to be briefed by the Divisional Police Officer at Omoku on the matter. He, however, added that the Rivers State Police command has men from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, FSARS, as well as men from the Inspector-General Tactical Response on ground at Omoku.