Foremost Niger Delta elder, Pa Edwin Clark has said that the identity of the kidnappers of his son was known to the search parties made up of a team of law enforcement officials and ex-Niger Delta militant, Government Tompolo.
Clark pleaded with the kidnappers to release his son unharmed. “My son is a chief in our community and a responsible man, a politician, a PDP man. He contested those days under the DPP, but has since come back to the PDP; he is the managing director of the family company. He is 44years old and a graduate of the University of Benin. He is married with four children.
“My only worry is that the children and the young wife are anxious to see their father.
“This is a criminal offence and I don’t have to keep it to myself. I reported (the matter) to law enforcement agents: the director general of the SSS and the commissioner of police in my state, and the governor who has been helpful. The waterways agency has also been told about it. Tompolo also got his gadgets and he is out combing everywhere.
“That very day, it was raining, that is why it was conducive for them to come with a small bus and my son was already in his car to drive back to Warri when they came in, they stopped him, dragged him down, knocked him on the head with the butt of the gun and took him away in his car.
“But on getting to the next village, my mother’s place, their car fell into a ditch by the bridge. So they jumped from the car into the boat leaving the car behind. But the car has been recovered by the police and the young man who was driving the car arrested by the police”.
He said another suspect who it was revealed had a change of heart and set out to mourn the victim has also been picked up by police.
“He came to Kiagbodo to inform my son to run away or get himself adequate security, but by the time he came to the village, he had been kidnapped,” Clark revealed.
“So he too has been arrested by the police to help them in their investigation. The people who kidnapped Ebikeme are already known, but where they are and where they have taken him to, we don’t know; that is the position and we pray that he would be freed,” he added.
“They are demanding for money. My appeal to them is that they should release him. We all cannot get jobs at the same time. Every effort is being made that everyone gets job and most of them are employed in the area in the jobs we are doing at home. The issue is that we haven’t got enough jobs to do. But some of them have become chronic kidnappers. There is nothing that could stop them. Armed robbery no longer pays as kidnapping because they get good money from kidnapping human beings.”