Bayelsa killing: Police pay N1m for kidnapped corporal

IG, Abubakar

THERE were reports on Thursday that one of the 12 policemen said to have been killed in the creeks in Bayelsa State, Corporal Lucky Ebebi, is alive and has been freed by his captors after police authorities paid a N1m ransom.

Ebebi and 11 other policemen were on Saturday ambushed and reportedly killed by gunmen in Azuzuama Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also on Sunday claimed responsibility for the attack and confirmed that its fighters killed 12 policemen.

Our correspondent however learnt that the gunmen freed Ebebi, 31, on Wednesday after collecting N1m ransom from the police.

The corporal, said to have been in the service for seven years, was admitted at the emergency ward of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, where he was treated for minor gunshot injuries but was discharged on Thursday morning and reported at the state police headquarters, Yenagoa, for debriefing.

When our correspondent visited the ward on Thursday afternoon, one of the doctors, who craved anonymity, said Ebebi had been treated and discharged.

“He only spent a night with us here. His gunshot wound was not serious because the bullet only brushed him off. He has lived up to his name, Lucky,” he said.

A security source told our correspondent that the gunmen kidnapped Ebebi after killing others and took him to a militant camp in the creeks.

The source, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said two kidnapped expatriates were also detained in the same camp and that the gunmen released the expatriates along with Ebebi after receiving the ransom.

He however said one of the expatriates died in the kidnapper’s den.

He said the expatriates were suspected to be a Greek and an Indonesian but added that it was not certain the one that died in the camp.

“Many active militant camps are functioning in the creeks, especially along Okogbe and Azuzuama creeks,” he said.

The elder brother of Lucky Ebebi, Victor, confirmed to our correspondent that his brother was alive.

“We are happy that he is back to us. This is a miracle because it is as if he resurrected from the dead. I am with him at the police command,” he told our correspondent on telephone on Thursday.

Victor was one of the family members of the victims who besieged the mortuary section of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, on Tuesday to check the 10 bodies the police claimed to have recovered four days after the incident.

PUNCH