Due to claims that their wives are being abducted repeatedly throughout the state, Igbo traders in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, closed their businesses on Tuesday.
The businessmen bemoaned the trend but added that men from the underworld had persisted in picking wives to hold for ransom.
The Igbo traders’ leadership decided to cancel the two-day demonstration on Wednesday as a result of the state government’s intervention.
One of the Igbo traders, who wished to remain anonymous due to lack of authorization to talk, said “It was a protest by Igbo traders in Kogi over the incessant kidnapping of our women. It keeps occuring every month.
“After they release one person, the next month they will pick another person. This has been going on for over two years. The protest was planned for two days but it was called off today (Wednesday).
“According to our leadership, they said government officials and officials of Lokoja Local Government Area intervened in the matter, so they suspend the protest,” he said.
A trader, Mr Sunday Ike who spoke to our correspondent, said Igbo traders live in fear over what he called “rampant kidnapping of Igbo traders in the state”.
He said: “The kidnapping of Igbos in the state is becoming alarming. We are living in fear. Igbo traders are endangered species. One Igbo lady was recently kidnapped while returning from church. Her abductors refused to release her until the husband paid a huge sum of money as ransom.”
He claims that on Tuesday, Abdullahi Adamu, the caretaker chairman of Lokoja Local Government, met with Igbo traders.
He claimed that the head of the local government had allayed their worries by promising that Lokoja will remain a melting pot of Nigerian culture.
“The LGA chairman said his administration would continue to foster security and promote peaceful coexistence among all ethnic nationalities in the state.
“With his intervention, the leadership of our union has ordered us to call off the protest and that is the reason we opened our shops today,” Ike explained.
