Okonjo-Iweala’s aged mother kidnapped

Okonjo Iweala

Gunmen on Sunday kidnapped Kanene Okonjo, 82, mother of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State.

Okonjo-Iweala’s mother, wife of His Majesty Chukwuka Aninshi Okonjo, the reigning Obi of Ogwashi-Uku kingdom was kidnapped about 1:47p.m at the Obi’s palace at Ogbe-Ofu quarters in Ogwashi-Uku by gunmen who stormed the palace in two cars.

The hoodlums struck two days after the kidnappers of Arthur Okowa, the octogenarian father of the senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Ifeanyi Okowa, were sentenced to 45 years in jail each by an Owa-Oyibo High Court in the state.

However, the police have arrested a man who allegedly left the compound few minutes before the incident took place.

The man was said to have informed the housemaid that he was in the palace to take the queen mother to somewhere in the town.

The kidnappers, numbering about 10, were lurking around the palace until the woman and her maid came down to serve workers at the gate soft drinks.

Eyewitness account said as soon as the woman came down from the main building, towards the gate, the criminals also moved in from the gate to grab and push her into a waiting Golf Volkswagen car.

“The abductors, when they walked into the compound, were heavily armed. They were about ten. They bailed up the men fixing the interlocking tiles and asked them to lay face down. Immediately they saw her (the king’s wife who was coming towards the gate with her maid to serve the workers soft drinks) they bundled her into a waiting vehicle, a Golf car, while another car was parked outside”.

One of them, bracing all odds, went upstairs to collect the woman’s handbag. The eyewitness said another maid who sighted the kidnapper upstairs hid herself in the kitchen.

On coming down from the upstairs, the kidnapper informed his cohorts that there was no one else in the house, so they zoomed off.

When contacted the state police public relations officer, Charles Muka, confirmed the incident.