Chief Imam of University of Nigeria Kidnapped

Sat, Sep 12, 2015
By publisher
4 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Crime

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Adam Idoko, chief Imam of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, has been kidnapped

FABILA Idoko, wife of the Adam Idoko, chief Imam of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is worried over the fate of her husband. Idoko was kidnapped by 12pm on Thursday, September 10, while in a meeting with five members of the management and finance committee of the Islamic Education Development Centre, in his hometown in Amufe community in Igboeze North local government area of Enugu State.

The meeting was on when three boys with locally made pistol walked into the room and ordered the people to lie down on the floor and collected all their mobile phones. They Kidnappers then took Idoko out to his car and ordered his driver, who had chauffeur driven him to the venue of the meeting and was waiting for his boss inside his black pathfinder SUV vehicle out entered and disappeared.

Realnews gathered that the kidnappers drove through the Amachara Okpo road, leading to Benue State. They are yet to make any contact with the family of Idoko. That is why Fabila is pleading with the kidnappers to release her husband and let him come back home to cater for his family.

The University community is worried over the development too. Realnews gathered that the police and other security agencies were trying their best to investigate the case which is considered difficult because that particular community is notorious for kidnapping activities. As at the time the kidnapping took place the police were documenting the case of two kidnappers who were apprehended when they got the call that Idoko has been kidnapped.

Igboeze North is also said to be very violent because it shares border with Benue and Kogi States. It is also suffering from a conflict of identity because some of the people in the community claim to be Kogi, alleging that they were wrongly put in Enugu State. Because of this they have destroyed every government presence and infrastructures that have been provided for them by the Enugu State government.

The people of the town who believe they are from Kogi do not want to go to schools built by the Enugu State government.  Brothers are now fighting brothers there and are not averse to killing each other in the event of any hostilities in the Igboeze North where there is serious proliferation of arms among youths who belong to different rival gangs.

The spate of violence in the area has made both the Enugu and Kogi States to deploy 18 and 20 policemen, respectively, to patrol the area. There is also a large presence of vigilante groups in the area such that it is very difficult for policemen to even work to ferret out information because the people are deeply suspicious of outsiders and will not readily give put information that will enable the police to track the kidnappers of the Idoko.

“There are so many vigilantes in the area. And policemen deployed in the area are not comfortable patrolling there because rampant kidnapping happens everywhere there. The policemen also fear for their lives in such a volatile environment. They have the highest concentration of vigilante groups, gangs and conflict entrepreneurs”, a security official, who wishes anonymity, told Realnews.

Realnews also gathered that Idoko may have made enemies in the community who may want to get rid of him in order to continue perpetrating financial fraud in the Islamic School which he attracted to his community. Some of the members of the management of the school saw the school as a money making venture by attracting funds from Islamic institutions home and abroad who are interested in spreading Islam in the south east. Idoko was allegedly against this corrupt move which may have instigated his kidnap.

“We decided to know if there is a face-off between him and anybody or group and people found out that within the Islamic education centre he attracted to the community, some members of the management committee have been seeing the school as an opportunity to make a livelihood with the school being in the South East. Idoko found out that the funding he injected in the school is not being used to build school blocks but was being diverted and raised issues,” the source said, adding that it could be a reason for his being kidnapped just to get him out of the way.

— September 12, 2015 @ 10:20 GMT

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