Kidnap of Primate Kanu-Uche, others: Youths protest, ask Army to leave Umunneochi; Commentators slam Army spokesman
Youths of Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State have staged a peaceful protest against the rampant kidnapping of persons within their locality even with a military outpost/check point in the area.
The highpoint of the brigandage in the area was the kidnap of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Kanu-Uche, Bishop of Owerri, Rt. Rev. Dennis Mark and the Prelate’s Chaplain on Sunday. The abducted clergymen were released after payment of N100 million Naira and fingers are pointing at Army personnel in collaboration with Fulani herdsmen as the perpetrators.
The youths, who turned out in their numbers, chanting that the Army must leave their area, insisting that they (the Army) are party to the atrocities being perpetrated in the area, blocked the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, defying the soldiers who hovered around trying to disband the adamant protesters.
As at press time, it was not clear how the impasse was going to be resolved.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, in what many commentators have called a highly insensitive statement on Wednesday in Abuja denied complicity of the Army in the kidnap of Dr. Kanu-Uche and the other two clerics.
Nwachukwu who did not say what the Army did to try to rescue the Primate and his colleagues when the news broke or what they have done since then to try to track down those who made away with a whooping N100 million under their very noses had what a commentator referred to as “the effrontery to ask some silly and even wicked questions and make cruel comments including:
“Did the Methodist Church take the Nigerian Army into confidence while negotiating the ransom with the kidnappers? No formal complaint has been received by the unit.
“More worrisome is the fact that it was alleged that the ransom was paid in less than 24 hours.
“Was the ransom paid to troops?”
And rather than say what the Army and other security agencies would do or are doing to track down the kidnappers of high-profile personalities such as the Primate and his colleagues, Nwachukwu, seemingly without compassion or any iota of empathy said that the Army would approach the apparently shaken and traumatized “Prelate and the Methodist church to unravel the basis for the allegation.”
What he should, first be concerned about, a commentator said, is telling Nigerians and the world as a whole what the Army is doing to track down those who committed such a heinous crime against God and man under their very noses in Umunneochi.
