Suspected Gunmen Abduct Businessman In Calabar

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Barely six days after an accounting staff with the Nigerian Chronicle, Maurice Archibong, and an Associate Professor at the University of Calabar, David Ugwu, were kidnapped by gunmen in Calabar, a businessman based in the city has also been kidnapped.

According to PUNCH,The businessman, Desmond Oko, was kidnapped at his business premises around Goldie area of the state capital by unidentified gunmen on Tuesday night, adding the kidnappers may have trailed him from the State Housing Estate where he had been shortly before he was kidnapped.

His whereabouts remained unknown as of the time of this report as his abductors, who went away with his Hyundai Accent with registration number YAB 982 JL, had not established contact with his family.

As a result of his kidnap, the inaugural meeting of the Council of Okenwa Ndi Igbo, Calabar, scheduled for Wednesday, which he was to host, was postponed indefinitely.

It was gathered that this was the second time the 55-year-old Desmond Oko would be kidnapped. The first incident happened sometime in 2018 at his home in Goldie.

But it was yet unknown whether his 2018 abductors were those who kidnapped him again in 2020.

Family sources were worried about the fate of Oko as he was said to be hypertensive and diabetic.

The State Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incident.

She said, “I am aware that somebody has been kidnapped but I have not been briefed by the anti-kidnapping squad if at all the matter has been reported to the squad.”

Meanwhile, kidnappers of the accounting staff of the Chronicle newspaper, Maurice Archibong, have reportedly contacted members of his family and demanded N15m as a ransom to release him.