Abductors abandon Rivers SIEC chairman on highway

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt - 24.12.2007

CHAIRMAN of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Professor Nimi Briggs, who was abducted almost two weeks ago, has been set free by his abductors.

Briggs, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt and chairman of River State’s Economic Advisory Council and a member of the National Think-Tank, was abandoned by his abductors around Ogbakiri junction at about 11:00 p.m on Saturday.

The spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, who alerted the Nigerian Tribune of the development through a text message, said “Prof Nimi Briggs has been released in the night.”

Also the State Security Service (SSS) sources informed the Nigerian Tribune that the suspected kidnappers actually abandoned their victim, without ransom, “when they realised that their cover had been blown.”

According to a reliable source in the SSS, the suspected hoodlums had been contacted at about 7:00 p.m. on Saturday on phone and had promised that they would be letting their victim out, but refused to disclose any modality for doing so.

According to him, “we had already arrested five persons in the case, one of them is an elder brother to one of the suspects, but all those arrested are not directly connected to the crime. So what really happened was after their refusal to give us the modalities for the release, they took off from where they were hiding.

“They took the professor to Ogbakiri, where they left him. It was the professor himself who called and informed us of the development.”

Efforts to reach the professor on phone were unsuccessful as his phone was switched off.