Our sister’s abductors yet to contact us –Douglas

The family of Augusta Douglas-Ayam, the abducted elder sister of the Senior Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Research, Documentation and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas, on Tuesday said it had yet to establish contact with her and her abductors.

The family said the development had made it difficult to know the motive behind Douglas-Ayam's abduction.

Douglas-Ayam was abducted by gunmen dressed in military camouflage on Monday night in Ogbia community of Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

The gunmen, said to be about nine in number, were said to have shot sporadically into the air to scare away the residents before whisking their victim away. They were said to have escaped into the creeks with their waiting speedboat.

A younger brother of the victim, Mr. Gift Douglas, told our correspondent on the telephone that the family had been thrown into agony, more so as their sister was hypertensive.

He said the 48-year-old woman was discharged from the hospital three days before her abduction.

Douglas said, "We have yet to understand the motive behind our sister's abduction. We have not been able to establish contact with her abductors.

"Our family members are apprehensive of her abduction because it was not long she was discharged from hospital. She is hypertensive.

"It is pathetic that this is happening to us at a time when we have yet to recover from the multiple tragedies that occurred during the burial rites of our father.

"In spite of the trauma the family went through due to the contributions of our brother during the Niger Delta struggle, it is sad that the kidnappers targeted our family."

Meanwhile, the authorities of the state's Police Command on Tuesday deployed a combined team of marine police in the creeks.

Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State, Hillary Opara, said on Monday that the authorities had dispatched special anti-kidnap squad to the scene of the incident.

Also, spokesman for the command, Mr. Alex Akhigbe, on Tuesday said a special unit of the anti-kidnap squad of the police and the maritime component of the state's special security outfit, Operation Doo Akpo, had been deployed.

"We are after the kidnappers and very soon, they will be apprehended and the woman rescued," Akhigbe said.

It was also learnt that the Joint (Military) Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, had begun a manhunt for Douglas-Ayam's kidnappers.

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