Several weeks after 11 children, between the ages of five months and two years were abducted in Ishiagu, Ivo local government of Ebonyi State, their whereabouts remain unknown. The children were reportedly abducted at Ishiagu, home town of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. A reliable source in the community said the trend started December last year with the abduction of four children, adding that only recently six others were abducted, bringing the number to eleven.
DailyPost learnt that all the eleven children abducted are settlers in the community. Already, the situation has taken another dimension as residents of Ishiagu are accusing the police in the state of complicity in the abduction. Residents who alleged that policemen in Ishiagu divisional police station were aiding the kidnappers, said efforts they were making to stem the tide were being frustrated by the police in Ishiagu division.
When our correspondent visited the Mile 2 Area in Ishiagu where 2 year old Chiemere Emmanuel and eight month, Chidubem Emmanuel were abducted, their mothers Blessing and Nnenna respectively lamented that since the abduction of their children, nothing had been heard from either the police or from the government. The youth leader of the community, Mr. Chijioke Njoku, who also spoke to DailyPost alleged that Ebonyi state government and in fact the council chairman of Ivo LGA were not torched by the development because the abducted children were not indigenes of Ishiagu. He said: “It is no longer news that our children are being kidnapped, even on the 19th and 20th of December, 2012 in Ayaragu children were kidnapped. On 29th of December, along this Afikpo-Okigwe Road, a woman who was coming back from Ayaragu area with her child was intercepted by gunmen, they pushed her and her child into a car; along the road, they pushed her out and took her child away. Till now the family has not seen the child”. On the effort of the community, he said: “Two or three weeks ago we intercepted two vehicles- Jetta and Mercedes Benz; the Jetta over ran us while we seized the Mercedes Benz. “When we stopped the occupants of the car, they even tried to fight us. One of them ran away living the driver of the car. “The suspect was later handed over to the police, with the warning that they should not toy with the case. Painfully, nothing serious came out of that case”. Continuing, he said: “We are appealing to the government to help us. Everyday we come to this place to keep night watch in an effort to see whether we can stop this abduction, but the police are not backing us”. The Ebonyi State Police Public Relation Officer, (PPRO), DSP Sylvester Igbo who was contacted on phone, did not make any comment.
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