Bayelsa State Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Mr. Furuebi Akene, have raised the alarm that the captors of his septuagenarian mother, Patimi Akene, have threatened to cut off her head.
Patimi was abducted recently by unknown gunmen at Fonibiri community of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Akene, who spoke when some concerned Bayelsans paid him a sympathy visit on Saturday, said he was neither intimidated nor apprehensive over the threat.
He said though the abductors had reduced the ransom demand from N30m to N10m in the last few days, it was worrisome that the captors still threatened to behead her mother over his refusal to accede to the ransom demand.
The commissioner said, “One of the kidnappers, who claimed to be the leader of the gang threatened to kill my mother.
“He said he would cut off her head and deliver it to my house on INEC Road, Yenagoa, and leave her body at the village. His reason is because of the difficulty in getting me to agree with their demand, They are no longer calling me for ransom.”
Akene noted that though the kidnappers had stopped calling him, they had instead started negotiation with his younger sister.
He said the unnamed sister pleaded with hismother’s captors to collect N1m, but they refused, claiming that the amount was too minute for their fuel let alone their amount for their feeding and that of my mother.
Akene recalled that when the news of the abduction got to him, he abandoned his proposed trip to attend the World Surveyors Conference in Malaysia.
“When they demanded that I resigned from the present administration as a condition for my mother’s release, I told them that I was not a man out to sacrifice my mother for position.
“They allowed me to speak with her twice.The first time, she told me she was OK and I asked her if the kidnappers were Ijaws, she confirmed they were. On second occasion, they made my mother cry as a means to convince me of their seriousness. She was crying and begged me to secure her release and give them the money.
“They asked me to pay them their money. I told him I would not pay as I was not owing them. The last text I received was ‘You have lost your mother’.”
Patimi was forcibly taken away by six gunmen around 1am from her home close to the waterside of the community on Saturday, June 14, 2014.
The commissioner’s mother and one of her grand daughters were returning home from a church vigil on the fateful day when the hoodlums swooped on her.
They bandits were said to have sped away with the victim into the creeks in a speed boat they operated.
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