Rise in kidnap cases in Benue

FEAR seems to have enveloped residents of Benue State as kidnap cases are on the rise in the state.

The kidnappers according to information were said to have devised various means to get at their victims.

Cases of kidnapping have resurfaced in parts of the state, the latest being the  kidnap of a female journalist, Mrs Iyuadoo Tor Agbidye, from her home last Friday.

Penultimate week, a septuagenarian  one Mrs Monica Agaku of Tse Agbaragba was kidnapped.

It was  gathered that the kidnappers numbering eight, stormed the residence  of the septuagenarian  around 1.00 am on that fateful day  and whisked her to an unknown destination.

The old woman, according to a source,  was fast asleep when the gunmen broke into her house and whisked her away.

While police in the state have kept mute on the whereabouts of the septuagenarian, luck smiled on the female journalist, as she regained her freedom three days after she was abducted but after a ransom  was paid to the abductors.

Mrs Tor Agbidye, a news controller  with Benue State Radio, told newsmen, ‘my abductors were nice to me. They didn’t harm me, they didn’t shout at me any day. I was led by the Holy Spirit to speak to them and I told them that in this life, the only thing they needed was God. I prayed for them.

“I saw that at a point they gave me the liberty to escape so to say. Initially, they were very close to me but this particular day, they were not around me, they provided the window for me to escape,” she said.

When asked whether the N80 million ransom earlier demanded was paid, the female journalist  said, ‘my husband said what they asked for he gave them but not exactly  the amount they demanded for.’

She further said that her abductors disclosed to her that they had for a long time been  monitoring the family movement  until that fateful day they broke into her house and got inside her room through the window.

She said further, ‘when they broke into my room they asked for money and I gave them. They said they had reliable information that my husband was a bank manager and asked whether they could get money if they kidnapped me…I was blindfolded and we drove for hours until they handed me over to a certain man in the bush.”

Police through its spokesman, ASP Moses Yamu, said that two persons were arrested in connection with the kidnap of the female journalist and vowed that the command would do everything possible to unearth those perpetrating the evil acts on the residents of the state.