Police in Akwa Ibom Friday stormed the home of APC governorship candidate Mr Nsima Ekere, where a popular youth leader Mr. Emmanuel Sunday Ekpuk, alias Young King, was rescued from abduction and torture in Edemaya, Ikot Abasi Local Government Area.
It was gathered that youths who were suspected as members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) numbering over 70 abducted the youth leader who has maintained his support for the PDP and Governor Udom Emmanuel’s reelection.
The victim (Ekpuk) was taken to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital for treatment after he was rescued by the men of the Nigeria Police in Ikot Abasi.
Ekpuk who narrated his ordeal in the hands of his abductors, told our reporter that his attackers stormed his residence in Ikot Okpok, one of the 23 villages that make up Edemaya clan, at about 7.30 in the morning in a convoy of four cars and 30 motorcycles and started shooting sporadically into the air to scare away those around, before he was captured and driven away in the booth of one of the cars.
The victim was allegedly accused of promoting Governor Udom Emmanuel, instead of his brother Nsima Ekere, and was seen as a major force against Ekere’s moves to control the youths in Ikot Abasi, his hometown.
With injuries all over his head and parts of his body, Ekpuk explained how the assailants made a stopover at two locations where he was brutalised
before finally ending up in the family compound of the APC governorship candidate in Ikot Oborenyin, Edemaya, where he was then handed over to Chief Gabriel Ekere the father of
Nsima Ekere before the police arrived and rescued him.
The Divisional Crime Officer in Ikot Abasi who led the rescue team said they swung into action following a distress call to his station about the abduction of the youth leader, and headed straight for Edemaya where the victim was rescued and then taken to the hospital for treatment, given his state of health as at the time of rescue.
When our reporter visited the hospital, a team of medical personnel was seen battling to stabilise the condition of the victim, while a detachment from the State anti kidnapping Squad of the Police Headquarters in Ikot Akpan Abia also engaged the victim in further interrogation.
Meanwhile it was revealed that it took the intervention of the member representing Ikot Abasi/Eastern Obolo State Constituency at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Uduak Odudoh before what would have turned
out a ‘day of blood’ was averted in the Edemaya community as he (Odudoh) stopped the youths from the victim’s village and his other followers from a reprisal attack on the assailants.
