14 passengers, driver kidnapped in Port Harcourt, N14 million ransom demanded
14 passengers travelling from Warri in Delta State to Port-Harcourt, Rivers State have been kidnapped by gunmen at Rumoji near Port-Harcourt and the kidnappers are demanding a ransom of one million Naira to secure the release of each passengers, bringing the ransom to a total of 14 million Naira.
The kidnapped passengers had been travelling on Monday in a 14-seater bus owned by one of the popular transport companies (name withheld) when they were ambushed by the gunmen. All passengers and the driver were taken captive. A security agency connected to the transport company later recovered the bus from where the incident happened.
The kidnappers contacted victims’ families asking for a ransom of 1 million Naira for each victim. However, following negotiations it was reportedly reduced to N100,000 for each victim. Security agencies are reportedly carrying out investigations that will ensure the victims are released unharmed. The owner of the transport company is reportedly also doing all he can to ensure their release.
The Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP. Zanna Mohammed Ibrahim, confirmed the incident and said it occurred at Rumoji in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
Those who speak for this government are making governance so
cheap that gradually the country has turned into a laughing stock in the face of well
meaning citizens of this world. During the run-up to the general elections, these upstarts made so much noise and when the party ‘won’ the disputed elections they
were put in positions which have turned them into square pegs in round holes.
One particular government official who takes Ghanaians
for granted is this Deputy Minister of Information and Media
Relations who goes by the name Murtala Mohammed. The guy thinks the propaganda he learnt when he
was a serial caller in the Northern Region could be brought down to Accra, the national capital.
If those in the Northern Region ignorantly swallowed his rubbish, he
should not think those of us down here will buy his infantile antics, balderdash and tomfoolery.
And he has not even realized that he is an honourable Member of Parliament.
So now it has become the practice for a Deputy Minister of Information to brief the media on security issues while
the National Security Co-ordinator, Inspector General of Police and
other security capos sit in their offices? What have we done as a nation to deserve this nonsense?
In a matter of two months, more than seven markets across the length and breadth of the country were gutted by fire.
In fact, this is not the first time that markets were burnt down but the rate at which these ones were occurring overwhelmed
everybody.
The President of Ghana, who is having one of his legs at the Supreme Court and the other at the Flagstaff House was the first to goof
when he told Ghanaians that he suspected arson. Three days after he made that unfortunate
statement, another market went up in flames. Then he
told Ghanaians that he was bringing some American experts to find out
why our markets continue to burn. Before the Americans could book
into their hotels, another market went up in flame in Kumasi.
The Americans went there only to find women stripping themselves naked out of
desperation and frustration. More than one week after they visited Kumasi, we are yet to
know why that market got burnt.
Then one day we woke up to hear Murtala Mohammed announcing to Ghanaians that our security outfits
have arrested some men from Bawku who were suspected to be the arsonists.
When they flashed the pictures of these shabbily dressed ‘Bawku arsonists’ on the
pages of our newspapers I lowered my head in shame for being
a Northerner in the first place. If Murtala Mohammed had taken time to consult his lexicon, he would not have referred to these poor folks as arsonists.
My Webster’s Contemporary English Dictionary defines ‘arson’ as a
crime of intentionally and maliciously setting fire
to buildings, wild land areas, vehicles or other property with the intent to cause
damage. What would these hapless poor folks from Bawku gain if they set fire to
the Kantamanto, Agbogbloshie or the Asafo market?
If the idea is to find a scapegoat then Murtala
and his government have struck a rock. In fact, they will eventually dislodge
boulders which will surely crush them.
It is not the wish of these Bawku boys to sojourn in Accra, leaving behind their parents, children, siblings and wives back there in the North where life is extremely hard.
These guys are economic refugees who are out there to irk a living and they will surely not do anything that
will destroy their livelihood. The story was told that
one of the Bawku Boys who was arrested in Rambo style had bought a bus ticket to visit his wife in the North who
had delivered a bouncing baby. Today this poor guy is behind bars,
suspected of being an arsonist while the fires continue to burn nationwide.
This government should stop this kneejerk reaction anytime there is a problem.
It started with the Ya Na murder case. The NDC promised the Andanis that when they came to power, they will ‘set up a new and truly non-partisan professionally competent and independent Presidential Commission to reopen investigation into the murder of the
Ya Na Yakubu Andani II and his elders in March 2002’.
They further promised the people of Yendi that they
will surely find the murderers and let the law take its cause.
Indeed, when the NDC came to power, the pressure was put on them by the Andanis to
keep their promise. One day, we woke up in the morning to hear that about 45 poor souls including some very old men were arrested at dawn by well armed police and military officers at Yendi, driven to Bimbila
where they were screened and 14 of them were taken to Accra.
As for the rest who were set free, the security officers did not even care to take them
back to where they took them. Some of them had to travel on foot, 40 miles away to enter
Yendi simply because they did not have money for transport.
These 14 poor folks were put behind bars and were never given bail since they were referred to as
murderers, and as such were not qualified for bail. The sad
aspect of this arbitrary and selective arrest was that, the
victims included ailing octogenarians who were not even given the needed medical
treatment until the suspects were marched to the courtroom to stand trial for the murder
of the Ya Na. In their desperate attempt to
nail the suspects in order to satisfy the Andanis,
the government transported several witnesses from the North to Accra, lodged
them in luxurious hotels and coached them to go to court and be witnesses to the
Andanis.
At the end of the day, all the 14 suspects and one
who was tried in absentia were acquitted and discharged.
Then hell broke loose. Supporters of the NDC in the Northern Region who were disappointed by the ruling
burnt down the regional party office of the NDC and threatened to deal with the late President Mills who was touring
the Northern Region when the case was ruled in Accra.
Sensing danger, the late President flew back to Accra and promised to bring in expects from the US to reopen the case.
That was just a trick to cool down tempers. In fact,
not a single expect flew to Ghana until the late President died in a suspicious manner.
When President Mahama took over the reins of power, he went to Kumasi to meet with the Asantehene and pleaded with him
to re-start the Road Map to peace in Yendi. More
than one year after that instruction, nobody is travelling along the road map to peace.
For now the relative peace in Yendi is like the peace between the mouse and cat.
These guys live in one house, one living in his hole while the other sleeps on the veranda of
its master. If you enter the house, you observe peace but
let the mouse try to come out and see if indeed there is peace.
This is exactly what is happening in Yendi today. Every year, soldiers had
to be sent to the town to prevent the Abudus from celebrating the Damba Festival.
As to how long this will continue, only God will determine.
I can bet with my last Ghana Cedi that these ‘Bawku arsonists’ will be
acquitted and discharged like the Yendi suspected murderers.
Anyway, what is the essence of bringing in two
American fire expects at the expense of the tax payers’ money to investigate
the fire outbreaks when we have already arrested the
culprits? If indeed these ‘Bawku arsonists’ are the real
suspects, why don’t we debrief them to know their modus operandi so that the work of the American expects will
be made easier? So you see why the sages say lies have shorter legs?
Good Morning, Paul Joseph Goebbels Murtala Mohammed,
Reich Minister of Propaganda!!!