The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Ikechukwu Aduba has said any police discovered to be culpable in the kidnapping of the Finance Minister’s mother will be held responsible. These remarks came even as lapse in security has been blamed by one of the children of the Okonjo family, Mr Onyema Okonjo, for the kidnap of Professor Kanene Okonjo, the 82-year old mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Onyema told reporters in Ogwashi-Uku, Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State that 10 young men kidnapped their mother on Sunday afternoon between 12 noon and 1pm.
“They came in two green Golf cars. It all happened very quickly. I think there were definitely lapses in security, as the people that were here should not have been. All this gave them the opportunity to do what they had in mind. Now we can do nothing but pray.
“I think that this is a sad reflection of where we are as a society”, said Onyema, who is the sixth of seven children of the Okonjos.
He wondered why a woman in her eighties, who was also a grandmother and a great-grandmother, would be kidnapped.
He also disclosed that his father, Professor Chukwuka Okonjo and Okonjo-Iweala were on their way to Ogwashi-Uku when the incident happened.
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Ikechukwu Aduba, said that this was not time for blame-trading, while also promising that any indicted police officer would be duly punished.
He added that there was always the involvement of an insider in every case of kidnapping, and that investigations were on to unravel the situation and free Kanene unhurt.
“We have been holding meetings with the governor and we have our men searching through every nook and cranny. I am sure we will get her unhurt”, he said.
At the time of filing this report, a large number of security personnel were seen guarding the residence of the Okonjos.