Abducted retired principal, 72, died in kidnappers’ den

Abducted 72 years old retired principal, Chief Sunday Festus, died in the hands of his abductors at the early hours of yesterday, though his
abductors had allegedly collected ransom under the pretense that he was alive and woukd be released for his son to pick him at Azaama, a border community between southern Ijaw and Ekeremor Local Government Area in Bayelsa state.

The family members were thrown into mourning Saturday at 10:00 am, when the corpse of Chief Sunday Festus, the septuagenarian retired principal arrived the marine police jetty, carried on a stretcher into the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

Leighe Fustus, son of the abducted retired principal could not control his emotion as he openly wept profusely, seeing his father’s lifeless
body at the morgue.

He noted that the several bruises on the back and neck of his dead father was suggestive that his abductors strangulated him to death,
not minding his critical illness and diabetic condition as at the time he was kidnapped.

Though, he did not disclosed the actual amount of ransom paid, but noted that his premonition turned out to be true that his father could have been killed, when the kidnappers asked them to drop the ransom from 500 million to what the family could raise and urged them to hurriedly send the money to them.

Continuing, Festus explained that the two men delegation he sent to’deliver the ransom were flagged down by the abductors, who ordered
them to lie facing the ground and collected the ransom and their mobile phones and asked them to carry the lifeless body of their
victim (Chief Sunday Festus).

According to Leighe Festus, the delegation carried the corpse of his father dumped at Azaama, a border community between Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor Local Government Area into their speedboat and travelled to the police marine jetty in Yenagoa.

Festus, who was battling to hold back tears, said his father was a level 16 civil servant who served meritoriously as a principal; and
that he retired from Odioma Secondary School in Brass LGA.

He recalled that the incident occurred on the 14th of November, at about 3:26am, as four man gang of kidnappers arrived at the Foinbiri
waterside at about 3:10am and went straight to the victim’s resident, broke he protectors and forced him out of his room into a waiting
double 75horsepower speedboat to an unknown destination.

Festus, averred that the heartless kidnappers dragged his father, a diabetic patient on the ground to the waterside, after shooting sporadically into the air to scare and scuttle and resistance from the community.

The incident, it was learnt throw the family, neigbhours and the Obodo’s compound into mourning, particularly because of the diabetic
illness, as they fear he may die if exposed to harsh and ill treatment in the den of his abductors.

He, however, noted that the security agencies are on top the situation working round the clock to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous
crime.