From Ifeoma Ejiofor
Okpuno Egbu village in Umudim-Nnewi, Anambra State was thrown into panic mode on Friday as gunmen beat Mrs Chioma Udechukwu to stupor in the process of abducting her brother in-law, Ebuka Udechukwu.
Mrs Udechukwu who is a nurse in an undisclosed hospital said that the assailants numbering about fifteen stormed her husband’s residence at about 11.00 am and claimed that they had come to arrest her brother-in-law.
“I got curious and asked them to identify themselves to establish the fact that they are law enforcement agents but they didn’t, I became suspicious of the intentions of the men when none of them could identify himself as police officer.
“My suspicions got heightened because among the so called policemen, there are two individuals who I know very well as area boys in the community who was in the claimed police team.
“Every other request I made to accertain the credibility of the claim of the unknown persons proved abortive as they insisted on bundling my brother in law away.
“When it became obvious that they are hellbent on going with Ebuka without proper identifications, I decided to do a video recording of the incident so that at least we can know the direction to look at in the search for my abducted brother in-law.
“As soon as I brought out my phone to do the video recording of the event, they all pounced on me and gave me the beating of my life and in the process got me injured, they assaulted me and equally molested me and later went away with Ebuka,” she recounted.
Asked if her brother in-law was having issues with anybody, Mrs Udechukwu said that her brother in-law who is a bit indisposed cannot harm anyone and expressed worry why any right thinking person will want to abduct him.
“I have called my husband with another phone and we have set up a search party for Ebuka but as we speak now, his whereabout is still unknown,” she stressed.
She said that she ran to the press to present her ordeals to the court of public opinion so that the whole world will know the fate that has befalling her brother in-law.
“My brother in-law is sick, I have been taken care of him, he is harmless, he cannot hurt a fly, I appeal to the abductors to release Ebuka in the name of everything that is dear to them,” she pleaded.
Attempts to get the police angle of the story however did not yield any positive dividend as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Anambra State command, Tochukwu Ikenga (DSP) could not be reached on phone for his comments.