GUNMEN have kidnapped the President of the Ijaw Youths Council, Worldwide, Peter Igbifa, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
It was learnt that Igbifa was kidnapped on Tuesday morning along the Port Harcourt International Airport Road by a group of armed masked men.
Though details of his abduction were still sketchy, it was gathered that the IYC president had sent a message to his driver informing of his abduction.
Igbifa also asked the driver to tell the youths to go on with a planned protest, saying, “Nobody can infringe on the rights of the Niger Delta people.”
When contacted, IYC Chairman, Action Committee, Strategy, Planning and Programmes, Israel Fubara, said the council had just received the news.
“It is information that we got. But we are making our findings. We have already put machinery in place to see how we can actually know what happened. So, we are investigating.”
He further said the Ijaw youths had planned to shut down the region, saying, “Likely today (Tuesday) midnight, then action can begin because we wanted to exhaust the time limit before we can stage our action.”
Asked if he has an idea of what would have led to the kidnap, he said the IYC had given the Presidency a 30-day ultimatum to constitute a substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
“We will liken the NDDC to the North-East Commission. But the politics played in NDDC can never be imagined in the North-East Commission,” Fubara added.
When contacted, the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, said, “Yes, I can confirm that he was abducted along the Airport Road. When we got the information, we deployed our technical intelligence to make sure that his whereabouts is known and for him to reunite with his family.”