The troops of 72 Special Force Battalion under 401 Special Brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. A . Rabiu has rescued the kidnapped Ukum local government caretaker chairman Rev. Gideon Haanongon and his personal assistant.
It will be recalled that the chairman, his diver, police orderly, and personal assistant were reported to have been abducted about 13 days ago while they were going to the burial of Katsina-Ala traditional ruler, Chief Benjamin Fezaanga Wonbo.
But the chairman said that he alongside his personal assistant was kidnapped on the fateful day.
General Rabiu who spoke to newsmen at the 72 Battalion in Makurdi on Thursday said that troops recovered the council chairman and his personal Assistant on Wednesday in Katsina-Ala between 5 and 6 pm.
He stated that troops who had acted on a distress call carried out a rescue mission and in the process destroyed three camps of the kidnappers.
The Commander said, “When we recovered him, we brought him down to our barracks in Makurdi. We administered first aid on him and also, gave him food to eat. He is in good condition”.
General Rabiu who used the opportunity to highlight the activities of his troops said, early this year, we rescued eight females who were kidnapped on their way to a wedding ceremony along Benue-Enugu road and even neutralised one of the kidnappers.
“We are determined to secure the State as we have our men in all the 23 local government areas”.
The released chairman while narrating his ordeal in kidnappers’ den said that he and his PA were kept in a thatched house without ventilation.
He also stated that his abductors asked him to tell the state governor Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia to keep his promise to get criminals out of the bush and reintegrate them into society.
According to him, “They covered my face throughout the period of my captivity. I did not know when it was day daytime or night. They kept us inside a thatched house without air.
“Each day, the soldiers will come shooting but they manoeuvred their way through a bush path and hid us inside a river.
“The soldiers destroyed their camps and they kept moving us to another place. They did not feed me because they did not have food themselves to eat. I was urinating often so they gave me banana leaves and it stopped.
“At a point, they told me that these soldiers were disturbing them because of me and that the Governor had appealed to them to release me and he would forgive them.
“They said I should tell the Governor to keep to his words and get them out of the bush. So, at about 8 pm on Wednesday, we crossed a stream and trekked a very long distance almost from Makurdi to Abinsi and they removed the blindfold and asked me to take a path that leads to Zaki-Biam.
“But I recognized the village which is Tse Wombo in Katsina-Ala because my daughter is married there. I must appreciate immensely the effort of the military because it was their persistent pressure that made the kidnappers release me. Also, the Special Adviser to Governor Hyacinth Alia on Security Lt. Col. Alexander Igbaya Ashungu(rtd) played a significant role in my release”.
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