Gunmen Kidnap Mother of Six, Abandon Children

Gunmen again struck in Port Harcourt yesterday morning as a mother of six, one Mrs. Ezike, was at the Agip roundabout, kidnapped.
The gunmen, who blocked her 306 Peugeot salon car with her six children inside, took her away to an unknown destination.
Prior the incident at about 7 a.m., the hoodlums who had been trailing her started shooting sporadically into the air to scare away people.
Ezike’s children aged between three and 10 years watched helplessly as their mother was forced out of her vehicle into a waiting jeep and drove away.
Confirming the story to THISDAY, the Commissioner of Police, River State Command, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, said the kidnappers left her children in the car and took her away.
He said the command had mounted manhunt for the hoodlums.
According to him, “Yes, one Mrs. Ezike was taking her children to school in the morning when at Agip junction, some unidentified men in a jeep blocked her and took her into their vehicle. They left her six children in her Peugeot 306 car and fled.
“After the incident, we sent our men to comb all the waterfronts in the state to see whether they would want to take her through there into the creeks, but there was no sign of the woman and those holding her.
“We further gathered that the kidnappers had also driven the Peugeot 306 car with the children inside to a point on the East-West road where they abandoned the vehicle with the children inside and left with their mother.”
On the brand of the jeep the kidnappers used, he said the children were too young to know.
As at press time, Ogbaudu was unable to supply the full name of the woman.
He also could not confirm whether the woman’s husband is an Assistant Commissioner of Police, serving in Awka, Anambra State but asked THISDAY to “wait while I verify that right away”.
Sources within the security circles who confirmed the kidnap said the husband of the woman, one Chris, was serving either in Awka or Abuja but said he was indeed in service.