Idabato DO clocks 100 days in captivity!.

Ewane Roland: Kidnapped Idabato DO

Last Wednesday January 8, 2025, clocked exactly 100 days since the Divisional Officer, DO, of Idabato Subdivision in Ndian Division of the South West Region, Ewane Roland, was kidnaped.

The civil administrator was whisked to the unknown last October 1, 2024, by heavily armed men, suspected to be pirates from neighbouring Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Despite belated assurances from some State authorities of efforts being made to secure his release, very little has since filtered in the public space regarding the DO’s safety or whereabouts.

The silence of authorities, three months after the kidnap of the DO, has left many worried. There have been growing fears that the DO and the council staff, Etongo Ismaiel, kidnapped alongside him, might have already been murdered by the abductors.

Such fears are fueled by the demands and ultimatum made by the abductors of the administrator. In November last year, a viral social media video showed the DO in captivity.

He was seen suspended from a hanging stick, with both legs and hands tired and another person lying on the floor motionless. The DO was captured in the viral video crying and begging for help from all persons of goodwill and State authorities.

His abductors were overheard in the same video, threatening to kill him if their demands were not met.

“700,000 dollars, non-negotiable. Oh yes, I am doing the right thing. Non- negotiable, 700,000 dollars. I don’t want to hear no excuses, no complain. Mr man, if you don’t want to die, get me my money,” a leader of the kidnappers threatened.

 

Revisiting kidnappers’ demand

As per revelations made by the DO’s wife, Rose Ewane, in an interview granted Canal 2 Television, the kidnappers started making demands ten days after her husband’s abduction.

“…they said they needed five million dollars, 10 generators and one 200 horsepower Yamaya engines,” the DO’s wife disclosed, adding that after a week of pleading, the kidnappers then brought down the request.

“…within one week of pleading, they went down to 3 million dollars. We stayed on 3 million dollars for as long as two weeks. By the fourth week, they moved down to one million dollars. We have been bargaining on that one million dollar since. It is only yesterday [Sunday, November 17] when I got a call again from them, they talked about 700,000 dollars,” the DO’s wife detailed.

 

DO seemingly abandoned by gov’t

Apparently frustrated by the deafening silence of government and what she termed provocative remarks from the hierarchy of her husband, the wife of the kidnapped DO had declared that the family appears abandoned.

“So far, no fruits are coming forth. The family seems to be alone in this baffle because of what I get from my husband’s immediate boss,” Rose Ewane declared.

She revealed that her husband’s immediate boss [Ndian SDO] had declared that “the government does not negotiate with terrorists”.

“He kept on citing the example of the six delegates of Ndian who were kidnapped and killed. That is how he kept on reminding me that I should tell the pirates that the government does not negotiate with terrorists. At one point I got angry,” the wife recounted.

Worth recalling is the fact that the governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, had issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the DO to be freed unharmed days after he was kidnapped.

The Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, and the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, had in separate outings late last year, assured that efforts were being made by the State to ensure the release of the administrator.

 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3334 of Friday January 10, 2025

 

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