Mother Of Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Kidnapped In Delta State

Mother of Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was kidnapped on Sunday from the palace of the traditional ruler of Ogwashi-uku, Obi (Prof.) Chukwuka Okonjo.

Mrs. Kanene Okonjo, 82 , the queen mother of Ogwashi uku was abducted around 1:47PM by a gang of armed men who seized her at the gate of the palace at Ogbe-ofu and took her away while  the husband had traveled out of town.
The police said they arrested a man who allegedly left the compound few minutes before the incident took place.
The finance minister is currently in Abuja making arrangements with security agents to free her mother according to family sources.
Two security sources, one in the capital Abuja and another in the southeast’s Delta state, said the abductors took the septuagenarian Kamene Okonjo-Iweala from the family home in Ogbe-Ofu, Delta state.
It was not clear whether the motive was political or ransom-seeking, they said. The source in Abuja said three people had already been arrested in connection with the kidnapping. He had no further details.
Nigeria is one of the worst countries in the world for kidnapping, a lucrative criminal enterprise worth millions of dollars a year. Abductions are most rife in the oil states, especially Delta state, where Okonjo-Iweala’s family is from, but they are also common throughout the south, including in the commercial capital Lagos.
Kidnapping for political reasons is less common, though it does occur. Gangs operate throughout the Niger Delta, which is home to Africa’s largest oil industry. The majority of people abducted are Nigerians but foreign oil and construction workers have also been frequent targets.
Local newspapers carry a story about a new kidnapping almost every day, often of professionals or relatives of politicians, but rarely anyone as high profile as the finance minister’s mother.