By Damola Emmanuel
About 24 hours after he was set free by his dare-devil abductors, the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence Samuel Kanu Uche, arrived Lagos, Tuesday, confirming that his church paid the N100 million demanded by the gunmen.
Uche also disclosed that neither the Federal Government nor the State Government nor the military nor the police intervened in the sad episode.
The Prelate, his driver and two clerics- the Bishop of Methodist Church, Owerri Diocese and the Prelate’s chaplain-were kidnapped in Abia State on Sunday but they were released the following day.
Addressing a press conference at the Hoares Memorial Methodist Cathedral, Yaba, Lagos, on Tuesday, Uche said the ransom money was arranged in five sacks of N20 million each. And the funds were raised by the Methodist Church in Nigeria.
According to reports, they were abducted at about 2p.m. on Sunday while returning from a church programme in Okigwe, Imo State, and heading to Isuochi in Umu Nneochi Local Government Area of Abia State.
Kidnapping for ransom has become big business for career criminals and their godfathers in Nigeria, including the South East geo-political zone, where most violent crimes are attributed to the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, a separatist group agitating for the restoration of the Republic of Biafra.
Though the group has been outlawed, it is very active in the South East.
Although the hydra-headed monster of kidnapping for ransom is yet to abate, the Federal Government, recently, moved against payment of ransom in the country, with President Muhammadu Buhari signing a law criminalizing ransom payment in Nigeria.
