KIDNAP SAGA OF FORMER NYSC D-G EDET AKPAN

Sir,

KIDNAP SAGA OF FORMER NYSC D-G EDET AKPAN

Edet Akpan, a retired army general, was the NYSC Director-General who rectified things after the exit of the notorious Mr. Kila, an earlier NYSC Director-General. The respected General Akpan was at one time the Director of Army Education. Akpan is a respected PDP stalwart, who called shots during Attah’s regime.

Gunmen stormed Qua Iboe Church in Iwok, Nsit Atai LGA of Akwa Ibom State on Sunday, January 31 and kidnapped him and in the process a widow that has (now) left six children behind and another woman member of the church were cut down while his police and army orderlies were shot and the general bundled into a car boot and that was it.

The kidnappers later demanded N70million through a phone contact. How much was later paid and who settled, are yet for the public knowledge. But seven days later (07/02/10) at the same church, were the general and some of his well-wishers for 'thanksgiving' service. But the general during his speech said this should not be regarded as thanksgiving because he was still heart-broken knowing that in the process of his kidnap, innocent women who came to “worship God were killed in God’s house”.

Yours sincerely was also there; I related with Akpan when he was Director, Army Education Corps. Governor Akpabio, as reported in the media, flew from Abuja to attend the church service and in his speech, told the congregation that "they should be thankful to God that they were alive, unlike the dead women". Akwa Ibom Police had the facilities but still was unable to track down the kidnappers within the small State.

In Kwara State, the PDP Secretary’s son’s abductors were reportedly traced by the Kwara Commissioner of Police who applied the available gsm tracking system. The public also awaits Governor Akpabio on who the sponsors of the kidnappers were; he confessed so. General Akpan in a photograph taken with Governor Akpabio (The Nation and Nigerian Tribune of 08/02/10) after the last church service looked rattled and seemed to be asking the governor: "Who did it and how do we stop this mess?"

Chief Sunday Udoh, 348 Herbert Macaulay, Yaba-Lagos.