35 Days After, Top Rivers Monarch Regains Freedom From Captivity

Thirty five excruciating days after he was kidnapped in his palace in Ikuru, Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, a first class Traditional Ruler, King Aaron Miller Ikuru, has finally been rescued by the police from his abductors.
The monarch’s spokesman, Maurice Ikuru, confirmed the release to newsmen, in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
The monarch, who is also the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, was nabbed by kidnappers on February 21, 2021, during a meeting with some of his kinsmen in his palace in Ikuru, a riverine community in the state.
On the same day, a senior lecturer and head of Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Jones Ayuwo; also the king’s kinsman, was kidnapped at Bori on his way back from a meeting in another village on Bible translation in local languages.
The university lecturer was nabbed in company of some journalists, who were released shortly afterwards, but not without some horrifying ordeals.
While disclosing the king’s release, the palace spokesperson did not, however, give details of how the monarch was released from the kidnappers’ den.
He simply confirmed that the king was released on Saturday night.
Maurice also said the monarch was released unconditionally without any ransom paid, adding that, “we just thank God for everything.”
It would be recalled that Maurice had informed newsmen earlier on March 17, barely 25 days after his abduction that the kidnappers were demanding for a ransom of N5billion.
Maurice had said, “They had made contact with the family. They said they want N5billion.But I have not heard anything from them again. But we are believing God that very soon, he will be released’.
Also speaking, spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, SP Nnamdi Omoni, confirmed the monarch’s release, saying, “The Command is in an ecstatic mood over what has happened.”
A statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Nnamdi Omoni, revealed that the Okama of Ikuru Kingdom was released Saturday night at a forest in Abissa in Akuku Toru Local Government Area where he had been held in captivity for five weeks.
The statement said his release was a result of robust synergy between the Nigerian Police and the Navy, where through collaborative efforts, both agencies from inception, worked relentlessly with the aid of technical assistance to release the monarch.
Omoni said,, “The police, in the wake of the incident, deployed strategically and mounted unassailable pressure on the kidnappers and it was reported that in one of such pressures, the king’s clothes and hat were recovered at a creek, while one Wariboko Basoene was arrested, who in the course of investigation, made useful confessions to the police, and finally led the operatives to a forest in Abissa, where the monarch was eventually rescued, unhurt”.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of his abductors, the traditional ruler expressed gratitude to God Almighty for using the instrumentality of the police and other agencies to effect his release.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr Friday Eboka, who led his officers to the residence of the monarch, commended the efforts of the police for ensuring the safe and unconditional release of the king and his kinsman, the lecturer, kidnapped simultaneously.

By: Susan Serekara-Nwikhana