The police on Saturday said it had deployed helicopters along the Benin-Agbor Road,in a bid to track the abductors of Mrs. Margaret Emefiele, wife of the
Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who has reportedly taken over the investigations himself, has also flooded the area with hundreds of police operatives and sniffer dogs in a move to destabilise the kidnappers, it was learnt.
A senior police officer disclosed that, “We received information that the CBN governor’s wife was abducted alongside three women and a male driver. They were on their way to Agbor, Delta State, where she hails from.
“We have deployed policemen, helicopters and sniffer dogs and we will arrest the suspects very soon.”
Gunmen had on Thursday abducted Margaret along with four others and demanded N100m as ransom.
The kidnappers were said to have made the demand after taking their victims to an unknown location.
A senior police officer told our correspondent that Margaret was abducted alongside three women and a male driver.
He said they were abducted along the Benin-Agbor Road on Thursday.
Police sources said the abductors did not know her identity, adding that they simply stumbled on her and whisked her away.
It was also gathered that the IG Special Intelligence Monitoring Team, headed by Abba Kyari, has commenced investigation into the incident.
Kyari was the officer who arrested the suspects responsible for the abduction of Prof. Kamene Okonjo, the mother of ex-Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in 2012.
Another source said, “The kidnappers did not know the identity of the woman; preliminary investigation indicated that the gang just got her by chance. They have contacted her husband and they are demanding for N100m cash.”
Findings indicate that there were fears that the gang may increase their demand if they got to know the identity of their hostage.
“We actually wanted to keep the incident under wraps until the woman has been rescued, because the exposure of the victim’s identity may complicate the case; this is our fear,” a source said.
The police spokesman, Donald Awunah, could not be reached for comments as calls to his mobile telephone failed to connect. He had yet to respond to an SMS as of the time of filing this report.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, did not pick repeated calls made by one of our correspondents to his mobile telephone.
When a text message was sent to him, requesting for comments on the kidnap of Margaret, his response was “I am sorry, not at this time.