Elder statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark yesterday, accused jailed leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah and his brother, Charles, of being behind the recent kidnap of his son, Ebikeme.
Pa Clark, a delegate to the ongoing National Conference told journalists that Okah and his brother allegedly abducted his son because he refused to join them in waging a war on President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. He dismissed insinuations that the abduction was arranged by the family.
Ebikeme, a father of four was released by his abductors on Sunday after days with his captors.
Shrugging off rumours that the Delta State Government coughed out N500million to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Clark stated that no dime was paid before the release of his son.
He praised the Federal and the Delta state governments, the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of State Security Service (SSS), Mr Ita Ekpeyong and the chairman of the Delta State Waterways Security, Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tom Polo) for facilitating the release.
The Ijaw leader described the kidnapping of Ebikeme as a “serious matter,” but said that he took solace in what his father used to tell him, that no harm comes the way of an innocent man.
Detailing his experience in the hands of his abductors, Ebikeme, who fought back tears, recounted how he was manhandled by the kidnappers.
He stated that the kidnappers were organised in the business, giving graphic description of the camp in which they held him and how they dismantled his phone and gave different components of same to a different person and moved from place to place in the creeks.
He narrated how at a point, he and his abductors took refuge in a snake den, how they negotiated for ransom until they got a call from Polo’s deputy, Chief Boro Opudu, leading to his dramatic release.
He disclosed that his abductors’ grouse with the government at federal and local levels was that officials of government were in the habit of flaunting wealth .
Source: Sun
