9th December, 2012
Emerging reports said Professor Kamene Okonjo, the mother of Nigeria’s finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been kidnapped by armed men.
The woman believed to be in her late 70s was taken from her family home in Ogbe-Ofu, Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta North Senatorial District, online reports quoted family sources as saying.
Her husband, Professor Chukwuka Okonjo, the traditional ruler (Obi) of Ogwashi-Ukwu was said to be away in Abuja when the gunmen attacked.
Reports said the abductors, about ten of them, came in two cars, one of them a Golf car and pounced on the Queen Mother of Ogwashi-Ukwu when she followed her house-maid to serve drinks to tilers, working in the palace.
The abductors, unknown to the woman, were lurking around and pounced on her, dragging her into a waiting Golf Volkswagen car.
“The abductors when they walked into the compound were heavily armed. They were about ten. They bailed up the men fixing the interlocking tiles and asked them to lay face down. Immediately they saw her (the King’s wife who was coming towards the gate with her maid to serve the workers soft drinks) they bundled her into a waiting vehicle the Golf car while another car was parked outside”.
According to reports, one of them, bracing all odds, even went upstairs to collect the woman’s handbag.
A statement was later issued by the Ministry of Finance on the abduction.
“Earlier today, Professor (Mrs) Kamene Okonjo … mother of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was abducted from her home in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State,” the statement said.
“At this point, it is difficult to say whether those behind this action are the same people who have made threats against the coordinating minister in the recent past or other elements with hostile motives. No possibility can be ruled out at this point.”
Okonjo-Iweala has pushed to clean up corruption in one of the world’s most graft-ridden nations, particularly related to a fuel subsidy programme alleged to be riddled with graft.
Kidnappings for ransom have occurred frequently in Nigeria’s southern oil-producing Niger Delta region, but rarely with such high-profile victims.