Kidnapped journalist and former chairman of the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bayelsa State Council, Mr Julius Olusegun Osahon, has regained freedom from his abductors.
Sunday PUNCH gathered that Osahon, the Bayelsa State correspondent of The Guardian who was kidnapped on Monday, March 28, 2022, by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, along Patani axis of the East-West road, was released in the night of Friday, April 1, 2022.
The information regarding his release was contained on the WhatsApp platform of the Delta State Council of the NUJ, as logged by a member of the union’s National Executive Council, Chief Festus Ahon.
“Our kidnapped colleague, Mr Osahon, working in Bayelsa State, has been released in Ughelli, Delta State. He is in stable condition. …From Edo Council chairman,” the terse statement read.
Recall that Osahon and about 17 other passengers were travelling in a commercial bus marked Sunny Eru Motors when they were kidnapped by gunmen along the Patani axis of the East-West road. The bus driver was shot dead by the attackers in the incident.
All the abducted passengers, including the journalists, were consequently whisked into the forest by the kidnappers.
After the kidnap incident, the abductors had demanded N5m ransom from the family of the journalist, but our correspondent could not ascertain whether or not the amount demanded by the gunmen was eventually collected before he was released on Friday night.
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