One of the kidnappers of four Lagos journalists and their driver in Abia State has been arrested, according to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The four abducted journalists are Wahab Oba, who is the chairman of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ); Sylvester Okereke, Adolphus Okonkwo and Shola Oyeyepo.
They were taken along with their driver, Yekini Aziz, at Umuafor Ukwu, Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, on Sunday on their way back to Lagos after an NUJ National Executive Council meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Their kidnappers had requested a ransom of N250 million to release them.
The president, who did not mention anything about the fate of the kidnapped victims, disclosed the news in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, during a dinner organised for him by the state government on Thursday night.
President Jonathan described the rising rate of kidnapping as “extremely embarrassing” and regretted the involvement of prominent traditional rulers in the dastardly act, which he said had become a form of business and commended the role of security agencies in tackling the menace.
According to him, “government will not hesitate to unleash the full force of the law against perpetrators and sponsors of the crime. I commend the security agencies that apprehended one of these criminals yesterday (Wednesday).
“And I will use this opportunity to make it very clear again. There are some communities where kidnapping is becoming a business. Some very senior people are involved and we are tracking them.
“This is because when some people are kidnapped, some people come all the way from Lagos as negotiators, very senior people who have all the degrees in the world, who people respect but they have all degenerated to the level of abating and associating with kidnapping.
The Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswil Akpabio, had appealed to the Federal Government to reimburse the state on some of the Federal Government’s projects executed by the state while describing the president as the replica of the Biblical Joshua that emerged in the year of Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee.
He said the reimbursement would enable the state redirects the fund into other critical areas of need.
