Mr. Lawrence Ohimare, a pastor of the Christ Embassy Church who was kidnapped on Monday alongside 11 others in Bayelsa State, has been released.
The victims were commuting from Twon-Brass to Yenagoa in a speedboat taxi when the kidnappers, who came on another boat, hijacked the boat around the Obama rice farm in Nembe and drove straight to the Okoromo creek.
Ohimare, who was in the kidnappers’ custody for 15 hours, said the kidnappers believed they were important personalities.
According to him, the kidnappers abducted them with the hope of demanding for ransom from their family members before they realised their mistake.
On getting to their hideout, the kidnappers questioned their victims repeatedly and only learnt that he was a pastor and most of the others civil servants, Ohimare added.
The pastor, who noted that the experience was not “pleasant”, said they were freed around 11pm after the kidnappers drove them to a fishing point.