NAN reporter kidnapped in Imo

Media correspondents serving in Imo State are now living in palpable fear, following the reported kidnap of the head of News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, team, Miss Chidi Opara, in Owerri.

“Miss Opara was abducted at about 8.30p.m. Wednesday night, as she made to enter her house located at MCC/Uratta Road, Owerri,” one of her colleagues told Vanguard.

Governor Rochas Okorocha, in a swift reaction, appealed to the kidnappers to immediately set the journalist free, promising to work with the police to secure her release.

It was also gathered that Miss Opara was taken away in her Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, which had not been seen at press time.

Her colleagues recalled that on the day of the incident, Miss Opara fully participated in the activities of the state branch of the National Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, and dropped some journalists at their destinations before heading home.

Already, the leadership of the Correspondents Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Imo State Council, has appealed to her captors to unconditionally release her.

“We have brought Miss Opara’s sordid plight to the attention of the state government, through the Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere, and we will head to the state police command headquarters soon after leaving the Deputy Governor’s Lodge,” the Chapel Chairman, Mr. Athan Agbakwuru, said.

It was not clear if the hoodlums had made contact with any of her relations or friends, but there are growing fears that kidnappers are on prowl again in the state.

Efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer, And-rew Enwerem, for comments failed as his line could not be accessed at press time.

Meanwhile, Governor Okorocha, in a statement, blamed the development on people who wanted to use the kidnap to blackmail his government, to give the impression that the state was not safe.

The statement read in part: “The governor suspects that those not happy with the feat his administration has achieved in the past four years, by stopping kidnapping, must have been behind the abduction of the female journalist.

“Their reason is to use it to blackmail the government and perhaps puncture the credit and commendations the government has continued to receive from well-meaning Nigerians for stopping kidnapping in the state.”