Kabiru Onyene, an aide to the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has been abducted by gunmen.
Reports on Tuesday revealed that the kidnapping occurred on Monday at about 7.05 pm when the gun-wielding men stormed Onyene’s office at Okene in Kogi.
The kidnappers reportedly shot sporadically and forcefully took him to an unknown destination.
It was gathered that the victim was cooling off in his popular restaurant, “Nahaziyat”, located a few metres from the palace of late Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, HRM Ado Ibrahim, when he was kidnapped.
An unidentified individual was also shot in the process of the abduction.
A witness who gave his name as Ozovehe shared: “Suddenly, around 7.05 pm on Monday, we started hearing a staccato of sound, which many of us took as knock-out sound from fun seekers heralding the yuletide period.
“But when we saw several people running in different directions to avoid being caught up in stray bullets, it became clearer that it was a sound of gun shots, not knock out, as we thought initially.
“A few minutes after, news started making the rounds that the gunmen invaded Kabiru’s office; and they left with him.
“It baffled most of us that his abductors took him away; because the place of the incident is just about 200 metres from where the soldiers mounted their roadblock around the ex-governor’s house.
“A yet-to-be-identified person was said to have been shot in the process, but I cannot ascertain the condition of the victim yet, whether he is alive or dead.”
Sources close to the family disclosed that Onyene’s abductors have not reached out to them and in his reaction to the development, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Williams Aya, said he was yet to be briefed about the abduction.