Forty-eight hours after Miss Utibenbasi Ikoiwak, the 11-year-old daughter of the Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Aniedi Ikiowak, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen, her father said the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of N100m.

Miss Ikoiwak was kidnapped during a church service on Sunday by hoodlums suspected to be kidnappers in Eket, Akwa Ibom State.

Speaking in a telephone interview with THE PUNCH on Tuesday, the REC said he had established contact with the kidnappers of his daughter.

“Yes, they (kidnappers) have contacted me and they are asking for the sum of N100m. I have reported the kidnap of my daughter to the police with the hope that she would be released to me,” he said.

Unknown gunmen stormed the Abundant Life Ministries, a church located on Ikot Idom Road in Eket, and kidnapped the REC’s daughter during the service.

The hoodlums were said to have entered the church around 12.30pm and shot sporadically into the air after ordering the congregation to lie down on the ground.

It was gathered that the gunmen held the pastor of the church at gunpoint and asked him to release the REC, who is a member of the church, to them.

However, when Ikoiwak was not found inside the church, the kidnappers seized his 11-year-old daughter.

Ikoiwak, who narrated his experience to our correspondent, said he escaped through the back door of the church and ran into a nearby bush the moment his name was mentioned by the kidnappers.

He explained that it was when the kidnappers discovered that he was not in the church that they decided to go for his daughter.

The REC said the incident took place as they were about rounding off the church programme on Sunday, saying he had no premonition that armed men could come after him.

“I was the person they came for. When they (kidnappers) held the pastor and mentioned my name, I immediately escaped and ran into the bush. They shot into the air while in the church and everybody was lying on the ground.

“Unfortunately, they took away my daughter when they could not get me. She was kidnapped in the church. The kidnappers wore police vests,” Ikoiwak stated.

The REC is an indigene of Akwa Ibom State and had gone home to visit his family during the weekend.

However, the spokesman for the Akwa Ibom State Police Command, Mr. Onyeka Orji, said the police had commenced an investigation into the matter, with a view to effecting the release of the REC’s daughter

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2011062215472185

Great.
Just the kind of people pervading our electoral bodies.
What a coward.
He came to church with his daughter and ran out without her.

I hope the girl is kept safe and experiences minimal emotional or physical trauma from this.

Yeye Man. Telling the story like he is the action hero from COMMANDO.

100Million?

For a girl? (Not his first boy)

The kidnappers are being unrealistic.

wait wait wait. . . . . . . . . . . . so the guy was in church, kidnappers came in gun blazing, the guy ran through the back door while leaving his daughter at their mercy?! BWAAAAAH!!!!!!!!

i guess if he doesnt pay then we know how much he thinks of that said daughter (although we have a pretty good idea already)

Sun of god:

100Million?

For a girl? (Not his first boy)

The kidnappers are being unrealistic.

as if the life of ONE CHILD is better than the life of another? you are so focused on the ransom amount that you dont even think of the human being's life that is at stake. a parent should pay whether 100million or even 1 billion (if they have the money) and being the last daughter OR the first son shouldnt make any difference. . . . . . . . . . . i do feel a lil' sorry for your daughter (if you ever have any).

btw what's a "fair ransom price" for a daughter then, since you seem to think that there is one?!