Kidnappers of Dutch nationals demand N20m ransom

ONE of the kidnappers of the three Dutch nationals, weekend, in Lutugbene, Ekeremor Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, has been allegedly shot dead by suspected pirates, just as the kidnap gang has reportedly demanded N20 million ransom to free the victims.

A source told Vanguard, yesterday, that the kidnappers ran into the sea pirates, who attacked them, as they were escaping with the Dutch nationals to their den in the creek.
The Coalition of Swamp /Coastal Oil Producing Communities of Bayelsa and Delta States, has, however, given the kidnappers a 24-hour ultimatum to release the victims or Ijaw gods would go after them.

A police source told Vanguard that, “yes, we heard that the kidnappers had made contact and are demanding N20 million.”
This is just as reprieve came the way of two other Netherlands-based Nigerians, Mr. Sunny Ofehe, founder, Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, HNDC and Mr. Femi Soewe, who were reportedly seized alongside the Dutch nationals.

Vanguard learnt from a community source that they were abandoned by their captors at an undisclosed location somewhere in the mangrove creek between the Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas, where they were rescued by some community folks at 10p.m., on Monday.

Ofehe confirmed his release, saying that the kidnappers are still holding the foreigners while a security source told Vanguard that the kidnappers had establish contact and are demanding N20 million ransom.
According to him, the gunmen are still holding Mr. Erhard Leffers (m), Marianne Hendricks-Vox (f), and Mr. Yandries Groenendijk (m).

Narrating his ordeal, Ofehe said the incident occurred while they were returning to Warri after a tour of the newly built hospital in Amatu funded by Chevron Nigeria Limited.
He said: “Femi and I were later blindfolded along one of the creeks and ordered into another boat from the one they first took us. They took us to an unknown location and left us there while still blindfolded and kept separately.”

The death of one Paul Esebulu, from Amatu II, one of the Dodo River communities, during the Sunday attack on the boats conveying the Dutch nationals and their entourage is said to have heightened tension in the area.
The deceased is believed to have been killed by the propeller of the boat in which he was traveling alongside others when it capsized following the attack by the gunmen.

Sources from the area told Vanguard that the remains of the deceased, which were recovered in the early hours of yesterday at Bilabiri riverside, had been deposited at an undisclosed morgue in Warri.