By John Ugo
As anxiety continues to heighten over the spate of kidnapping in parts of Edo State, the Police Command on Tuesday confirmed that the driver of the second vehicle attacked, when gunmen abducted the Edo State Chairman of the Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Alhaji Abdul-Hamid Egele, has died.
Egele, it would be recalled, was abducted in his Jattu home on Monday evening.
His abductors had intercepted his convoy in his country home, killing his driver on the spot and injuring a security man attached to the chairman.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Edo State,Mr. Kontongs Bello, who had initially said that the Command was yet to receive the report of the incident, told newmen late Tuesday evening that the second driver, who was badly injured, had also died.
Kontongs also disclosed that Egele’s abductors were yet to contact his family.
He added that bush-combing had commenced to rescue the IPMAN boss.
“I got the news that the driver of the second vehicle who was severely injured in the attack is dead. The family is yet to be contacted while we hope that the bush-combing exercise will lead to the rescue of the victim and arrest of the kidnappers”, the Edo PPRO stated.
Egele, popularly known as Baba Petrol, was said to have been abducted at about 7.00pm.
An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, said, that the incident happened at about 7p.m. on Monday.
Source said the IPMAN chairman was returning home after the day’s business, when he was accosted by the gunmen.
“The gunmen ambushed the IPMAN boss with two vehicles without plate number and fired at his jeep and killed his driver in the process.
“The IPMAN chairman was later taken away after the security attached to him were overpowered by the gunmen who injured the security operatives,’’ the eyewitness said.
