Kidnapping: Former NYSC DG, Akpan, released

Written by Jackson Udom

A former Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and a supporter of Chief Godswill Akpabio, the Akwa Ibom State governor, General Edet Akpan, who was kidnapped on Sunday, has been released by his abductors.

This happens less than six hours after the state governor, Chief Akpabio, convened an emergency stakeholders meeting to deliberate on the incessant kidnapping in the state.
General Akpan was released in the early hours of Thursday.

The state governor, in his reaction after the release of the PDP chieftain, accused the opposition of sponsoring crimes and working in concert with some members of the party to instigate the kidnapping of prominent Akwa Ibom sons and daughters.

According to the governor, “I have it on good authority that the aim of this politically-motivated kidnapping is the handiwork of the opposition who believe that through this kind of uncivilised manner, I would be forced out of the 2011 governorship election.

“They are also working in concert with some disgruntled members of the PDP to paint a picture of insecurity in the state so that what they could not achieve at the poll, they would get it through the backdoor, which is a declaration of a state of emergency.”

He said about 20 prominent indigenes of the state, who were in support of his administration, had been marked for abduction before the next general election, all in a bid to stop him from contesting.

Before the release of General Akpan, the stakeholders meeting, which was presided over by the governor, had threatened to invoke traditional methods toward fishing out the kidnappers.

The meeting issued a communiqué with a vow to deal with kidnappers and their sponsors, no matter how highly placed they were.

At an enlarged stakeholders’ meeting held at the Government House, Uyo, on Wednesday, Akpabio condemned sponsors of kidnapping in the state and promised to deal with the perpetrators and their sponsors.

He regretted that in recent times, some militant groups had found their way to Iwukem in Etim Ekpo, Ika and some through Obot Akara to perpetrate their nefarious activities in the state, while attributing this to the handiwork of some disgruntled politicians of Akwa Ibom origin living in Abuja.

Akpabio assured the people of the state that government would not be intimidated by the people who tried to fan the embers of disunity, adding that the identity of the sponsors of the kidnappers were known to the government

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