It is always important not to sweep matters that concern security under the carpet. This is the reason why it is necessary that the issues raised in the report contained in the TELL magazine edition of April 6, 2009 should not be allowed to go unresolved.
The report entitled “Desparate Measures” accused the government of Akwa Ibom State, including its Police command, of either extra-judicial killing or trade-off in the matter concerning one Joseph Udofia who confessed his role in the kidnap of the Julius Berger expatriate engineer on October 8, 2008. After the arrest, (even) Governor Godswill Akpabio took off time to personally parade at the government house premises Uyo in November 2008, the arrested Joseph Udofia.
According to the TELL report, the self-confessed kidnapper was on a particular morning, at about 3a.m allegedly whisked away from police cell and up till date his where about remain a mystery. The report had alleged that government authorities may have released him in exchange for the kidnapped Julius Berger engineer and the wife of Senator Alloysus Etok.
Ever since then, nothing has been heard of this kidnapper. As a matter of fact the Akwa Ibom Police command and the government, according to the report thereafter, feigned ignorance of such a person ever held in custody and a kidnapper for that matter. But this is a case which while the government (the governor himself) paraded the man and described the ‘arrest’ as a major breakthrough in the fight against kidnapping.
Could it be that Joseph was killed extra-judicially or left to escape as trade-off suggested in the TELL story? This puzzle must be solved if any good meaning is expected in the fight against kidnapping which the Akwa Ibom government has allotted capital punishment for.
Sunny Udoh
399 Herbert Macaulay
Yaba-Lagos
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