Kidnappers of Mrs Priestba Anthony Wokocha,Director, News, Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation ( RSBC) yesterday contacted her family and asked them to pay N150 million ransom to effect her release.
This was made known by her husband,Mr Anthony Wokocha when members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors NGE resident in Rivers State paid a visit to the family to empathize with them on the unfortunate. incident
Mr Wokocha told the guild that his wife was on her way from work on Thursday evening when she was kidnapped by gunmen.
According to him, the incident happened at about 8pm when her vehicle broke down and they were trying to fixr it around the Golf Estate Highway, Trans Amadi Port Harcourt.
Speaking further,he said when her vehicle broke down, she contacted a mechanic but she couldn’t go through and decided to call him ( husband) to inform him about the development . He rushed down to the scene of the incident and called a mechanic who came without his tools and left shortly. So, while he and his wife were contemplating on what to do,a white Toyota Corolla car parked in front of them, the occupants, numbering 4 heavily armed men came down and asked them what happened and they told them their vehicle had broken down. One of the men carrying an AK-47 rifle suddenly beat him with the gun while others took his wife away.
Continuing he said, the kidnappers contacted him on Saturday and asked him to arrange a N150 million ransom if he wanted his wife to regain her freedom.
When asked if he had lodged a complaint at the police station,he answered in the affirmative saying the matter is being handled by a special unit of the Nigerian police in charge of cases of kidnapping with the knowledge of the State Police Command Headquarters.
It was gathered that the golf estate highway is a very lonely area and that the absence of street lights in the night also made the kidnappers to operate unchallenged. .
Priestba an easy going Woman, is a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors NGE. She is also a check off paying member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, ( NUJ) Rivers State Council.
Until her redeployment to the Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation RSBC during the last administration where she rose to the position of Director News, She worked in various capacities in the News Department at the Rivers State Television Station ( RSTV)
