A police officer said to be the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, of the Pankshin Division in the Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State was kidnapped a few days after he resumed work at the division.
The name nor rank of the said officials could not be ascertained at the time of this report and the State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Alfred Alabo, was not available to shed light on the development.
However, a resident of Pankshin who did not want to be named told Vanguard on Friday, January 13, 2023, that kidnapping has been rife in the local community recently, and everyone lives in fear.
According to him, “The incident happened close to our house, as we just ended our night prayers with my family, we heard gunshots, we tried to find out what was happening and we learned that some armed men went to Woktori hotel. It was this morning that we got to know that it was the kidnappers that kidnapped the newly posted DPO in Pankshin. We’ learnt that the man just came and was lodged in the hotel when they came to kidnap him.
“There has been a spike in the incidents of kidnapping recently. Some business people with fancy houses have been targeted, they would be kidnapped, they will pay the ransom, and be released. One was even killed. The staff of the federal government institution here is not spared. Virtually every week, you will hear of one incident, once they know you are rich, they will come to the house.
Everyone is living in fear even this night between 7 and 8 pm, there were still gunshots but we don’t know where or what it is. It is becoming rampant and we are getting used to it. By tomorrow we will hear what caused it. The DPO is very new, we don’t know him because he just resumed duty.”
Days To Christmas Day, Gunmen Kidnap Catholic Priest In Benue
Mark Ojotu, a catholic priest, Chaplain of St Mary’s Hospital, Okpoga, in Okpokwu Local Government area of Benue State, has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen.
DAILY POST learnt that the incident, which happened on Thursday, December 22, 2022, barely four days before Christmas, had plunged residents of the community into panic.
A statement issued by the Diocesan Chancellor, Rev Fr Joseph Aboyi Itodo, said the Bishop of Otukpo Catholic Diocese, His Excellency, Most Rev Fr Michael Apochi, has called on Christian faithful across the country to pray for the quick and safe release of the priest.
Our correspondent reports that there have been a series of kidnapping incidents in the Benue South Senatorial District since the beginning of the year.
It can be recalled that the late Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, late Rev Fr John Adeyi, was kidnapped from the same parish in Okpoga in 2016 by assailants who later killed him.
Fr Adeyi’s decomposing body was discovered behind the office complex of Ogbadibo Local Government Education Authority at Otukpa, his home town, in June 2016, by security personnel combing the area.
