Kidnappers demand N10m ransom for release of abducted INEC staff 

Kidnappers who abducted a staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa ibom State are demanding N10 million ransom for the release of their victim.

The victim, identified as Otobong Sylvester Ukpong, an indigene of Iwukem village in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area, an INEC staff  at the Commission’s area office in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, was kidnapped on Tuesday  near the Government Primary School, Oruk Ata, along the Ukanafun-Azumini expressway.

National Daily gathered that the victim’s brother, Mbetobong Sylvester Ukpong, confirmed the kidnap by unknown men of the underworld. “My brother was kidnapped at Uruk Ata2, in the morning hours of Tuesday, June 5, 2018, on his way to work in his office at Ukanafun Local Government Area office of INEC,” he was cited to have said.

Mbetobong decried that the kidnappers holding his brother in captivity  contacted the family, and are demanding N10 million as ransom.

“They used my brother’s phone number to call the family to disclose their ransom before they release him, but the elders of the family have told them such demand is outrageous for a largely peasant family to pay”, Mbetobong lamented.

The police public relations officer (PPRO), Odiko MacDon DSP, was gathered to have said that he was yet to get official briefing on the incident by the Etim Ekpo Area Command.

“Somebody called me from that axis of the state that a staff of INEC has been kidnapped, but as I speak I can’t confirm that information because I have not been officially briefed by the Etim Ekpo Area Command,” he, however, acknowledged.