Gunmen Abduct Rivers Commissioner's Wife

Wife of the Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Mrs Joy Iyaye has joined the long list of kidnap victims in the state.

Mrs Iyaye, The Guardian gathered was abducted while on her way to the office at about 7.30 am yesterday along Odili Abloma Road, near Eastern by-pass, Port Harcourt.

A source who preferred anonymity, said the victim was driving to work when a group of young men intercepted her vehicle and whisked her away to an unknown destination.

The source said the abductors later abandoned the victim's vehicle along the Odili Abloma Road.

As at press time, the motive behind Mrs. Iyaye's abduction was not known.

When contacted, the husband, Mr. Boma Iyaye told The Guardian that he could not speak on the incident at that time.The commissioner, in a very low tune, added that he was with the Commissioner of Police, requesting to be called later. But when his number was later tried severally, he did not pick his calls.

Meanwhile, The Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer who confirmed the incident to The Guardian in her office at Moscow Road Port Harcourt said the victim was kidnapped while on her way to work at about 7.30am yesterday.

She disclosed that the police have recovered Mrs Iyaye's abandoned vehicle along Odili Abloma Road, adding that details of the incident were yet to be received.

Abbey however reiterated her call on the public to assist the police with genuine information that could lead to the arrest of the abductors and possibly reduce the spate of kidnapping in the state.

Meanwhile the state government has begged the kidnappers to release the woman, a nursing mother who works at Bank PHB, unmolested and unconditionally.

A source close to the commissioner told The Guardian yesterday that the kidnappers had contacted Mr. Iyaye to inform him that they were with his wife, but that the bandits had not come out with their demand as at 7pm.

According to source, "the government has tried to persuade the kidnappers to release Mrs. Iyaye, at least on compassionate grounds since she is a nursing mother," but that it had not yielded any positive results as at press time.

The government was said to have also pleaded that Boma Iyaye had done a lot to empower the youths of Rivers State in his short sojourn as a commissioner and that it was unfair for the same youths to reward him this way.