Abducted retired school principal freed after ransom payment

Gunmen in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria have freed a retired secondary school principal after spending five days in captivity.

The victim, Ezekiel Paul, was released on Friday after payment of N1.5 million ransom, family sources told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.

This newspaper last week reported that gunmen who kidnapped Mr Paul initially demanded N20 million ransom before reducing it to N5 million.

The police spokesperson in the state, Timfon John confirmed the victim’s release to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.

Ms John, an assistant superintendent of police, however, denied knowledge of ransom payment.

“The information at my disposal is that the victim has been freed and reunited with his family. I have no knowledge of payment of ransom,” she told this newspaper.

Mr Paul, who is a brother to the Archbishop of the African Church, Uyo Province, was kidnapped at his country home, Ikot Abasi Akpan in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

Previous kidnappings

Residents of the area where Mr Paul was kidnapped, particularly Abak – Ikot Abasi Road and Ekpene Ukpa Road, stretching from Ekparakwa in Oruk Anam Local Government Area through Mkpat Enin Local Government to Etinan Local Government Area, are living in fear because of the activities of kidnappers.

In the last three years, gunmen have carried out a series of abductions, collected huge ransoms and in some occasions killed their victims.

Within three months in 2022, gunmen abducted four high-profile people including two clerics a medical doctor and a political party chieftain in the area. All four kidnappings occurred within five kilometres apart.

In February 2022, gunmen invaded a cottage hospital in Ikot Ekpaw, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, and abducted a medical doctor, Felix Ekpo.

Punch newspaper reported that the kidnappers stormed the hospital in the morning and made away with the doctor in his car.

Two months later – in April, gunmen abducted John Okoriko, a televangelist and founder of Solid Rock Kingdom Church.

Mr Okoriko was abducted when gunmen invaded the headquarters of his church in his village, Ibekwe Akpanya in Mkpat Enin LGA, PREMIUM TIMES reported.

In May, same year, gunmen kidnapped Alphonsus Eboh, a Catholic priest in the same community – Ikot Abasi Akpan —- where Mr Paul was kidnapped —- and demanded N100 million as ransom.

The then chairperson of the parish council, Cletus Okodi, had told PREMIUM TIMES that the priest was kept in an unidentified forest in the area.

Mr Okodi, himself once a victim of kidnapping, did not disclose the amount the church paid before the priest was released.

Still in May 2022, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Sylvester Ntefre, was shot dead by gunmen.

Gunmen invaded his residence in Ekparakwa, along Abak-Ikot Abasi Road in a black SUV and fired sporadic shots to scare neighbours before abducting the man.

About three months ago – March 2024 a liquor distributor, who was kidnapped at his office in Ekparakwa – meters away from where Mr Ntefre was kidnapped, died in captivity, Sun newspaper reported.

Malcahy Ufot, a retired broadcaster with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria who was kidnapped by gunmen in October last year but released after he became unconscious in captivity, died the next day at a hospital in Uyo.