Gunmen on Monday night abducted Alhaji Abdulhamid Baba-Saliu, the chairman of the Edo State chapter of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria.
His drive was also shot dead while his security detail and a second driver sustained different degrees of injuries.
Abdul Mahmud, the President of the Public Interest Lawyers League and a brother-in-law of Baba-Saliu in a statement on Tuesday, appealed to the abductors to release him unharmed.
The statement read in part: “Last night at about 1845 hours Nigerian time, my brother-in-law, Alhaji Abdulhamid Baba-saliu, Chairman, IPMAN, Edo State and Chairman, Jattu Union, was violently accosted by armed men at the gates of his country home in Jattu, Etsako West LGA, Edo State. One of his drivers was instantly shot and killed; and the other driver, including his personal security details, was grievously injured in the attack. My brother in law was taken away by the kidnappers. No contact, or random demand, has been made as yet.
“The dastardly attack on a private citizen in the precinct of his home and subsequent abduction not only highlights the growing insecurity and criminality in our country but the danger of living and working in a country that is now lost in the Anthropocene of violence, banditry, kidnapping and Yahoo-ritual killings that define and shapes its existence. What is sad, if not saddest, in all of this is that ordinary citizens have become victims of our new age of the Anthropocene that is dominated by gun-toting young men, criminal gangs and marauders.
“These are difficult and trying times for us. While we continue to pray for his safe return, I appeal to his abductors and keepers to release him unharmed to his family and community, Jattu, Uzairue, that he has given much love as a father and respected community leader.
“Please, I ask that you keep him in your prayers. May the soul of his departed staff rest in peace and may God’s power of healing be upon those who were grievously injured during the attack”.
