The people of Agba-Ndele community in Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State are living in fear on account of palpable insecurity in the area. The island community was recently invaded by unknown gunmen who abducted two teachers from Rundele High School, identified as Martha and Christie Mbadigwe; a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member identified simply as Azubuike and the school’s labourer, Mr. Joseph Dimkpa Wofurum, At the time of filing this report, their abductors were yet to contact their families. But a source in the community, who pleaded anonymity, said the teachers were victims of the politics of development in the area. He disclosed that the neighbouring community does not approve the building of the high school at Agba-Ndele from the outset and had been looking for ways to get it shut down. If that were indeed the case, then the enemies of the community might well have had their way. At the time our correspondent visited the community, all the teachers had fled for fear of the unknown. The non-indigenes among them have also vowed not to return to the community until measures are put in place to checkmate the insecurity in the area.
In different chats with our correspondent, some of the community’s elders, chiefs as well as the wife of the abducted school labourer and some teachers who escaped the abduction spoke on the abduction saga and the general insecurity in the area. One of the teachers who escaped abduction, Mr. Anwuri Akpenuchi Stanley, said he ran for dear life when 15 gunmen in military uniforms stormed the school with A-k47 rifles. He confirmed that five people from the school were abducted while one of them was later released because he was bleeding from the injuries he sustained during the attack.
Anwuri said the two teachers, corps member and school labourer were still being held by their abductors who also abandoned another teacher close to the waterfront where the invaders boarded a speedboat.
He said: “It was a very big incident. I am a son of the soil, but even as I am taking to you now, we are being careful with our movement. All the teachers in the school ran away after the incident. As the form master of JSS 3, I had gone there to take the roll call. The first period had just ended and it was a few minutes to 9 am.
“They invaded the community through the river. After the invasion, they took away five of them. They injured one and later dumped him when they discovered that he was bleeding seriously. When they left. we took the responsibility of reporting the matter to the police station at Rumuji. Before we got there, they had already informed the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) about the incident, so the police gave us the permission to go and treat him.”
Another teacher Mr. Awute Sylvester Denis, who was given the beating of his life for resisting abduction, said he was told by his abductors to go back because he was bleeding profusely. Thanking God for not being among those that were being held, he recalled that the gunmen men were heavily armed when they invaded the school
He said: “At a point, they surrounded me with gun and told me not to run. I escaped through the window, but when I got to the other side, I met another person. The one that had told me not to run became angry and hit me with the gun and I fell down. He then told me to follow them.
“On getting to the Waterside where they had their speed boat ready, their leader saw how I was bleeding and became angry with them. He told them to search me and take away everything I had. So they took my phone and the money I had on me and asked me to go.
“They took the other people into the speed boat and left. I think the community needs to do something about the insecurity in the area.”
The wife of the abducted school labourer, Mrs. Dimkpa, who was in tears while she spoke with The Nation, said she was not around when her husband was abducted. She pleaded with the abductors to consider her five children and release her husband.
But the Chairman, Community Development Committee, Elder Ikechi Chimezie, who spoke on behalf of the chiefs and elders of the community, said they were working hard to ensure that the victims were rescued from their abductors.
He called on the government to assist the community in securing the freedom of the victims and reopen the school to allow their children continue with their studies. He said the only remedy left was for the elders, the youths and the CDC to join hands and reason out the way to set the people free.
The CDC Chairman said the school is the only government presence in their community.
“That school is the only thing we have in this community. Now that the school has been shut down, all the teachers are moving out. The community cannot get anything good again. Imagine that there will be no school for a term or for years. What will the children do? They will have to trek from this community to the next one, which is about three or four miles away.
“It is not possible for children to go to a school of that distance. That is why we are calling on the government to come to our aid and see what they can do about the issue of unemployment which is causing this issue of kidnapping. Before you know it, they will ask for ransom.
“Look at this village; do you think they will be able to raise two or three million naira? Look at the women selling gari; that is just 1,200. Is that what we are going to use to pay the ransom?
“The teachers are scared. One of them is our own son. They all come from different local government areas of the state. All of them have decided to move away from the community. We don’t know what to do than to call on the government to come to our aid and help us.
“On our own, we can’t do more than what we are doing now. We are dialoguing, begging the parents and the relatives of those who were victims of the incident. There is a river that links Abonnema. There is one that links Abuah. So we don’t know where this thing might have come from.
“Although we are not laying the blame on anybody, we are calling on the government to come to our aid.”
The chairman of the vigilance group in the community, Mr. Clifford Dimkpa, said they cannot tackle the insecurity in the area without the help of government.
He said: “I want the government to help bring some security personnel to this community. We want peace, but without security I don’t believe the people would be at peace.
“I was in my house when I heard gunshots. I had to run down to the school premises. When I got there they had already gone. So I went to the staff room and spoke to one of the teachers. I asked what had happened and he said he could not explain at the moment; that the tension was too much for him.
“But I have called the police to tell them what happened in my community.”
The police at Rumuji Community in Emohua where the matter was first reported said only two persons were abducted at the time they got to the scene, adding that the ongoing investigation might reveal more.
The Public Relation Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Mohammad Ahmad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said the command was aware of the incident, adding that they would do everything within their powers to safely rescue the victims.
Source:The Nation
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