By Ushang Ewa
Alfred Ambe, a resident of Becheve community, which hosts Nigeria’s flagship tourism destination, the Obudu Mountain Resort has gone 6 days in the den of kidnappers with his abductors demanding for money to treat injuries incurred while he was kidnapped.
Ambe, popularly referred to as ‘Apprentice’ was abducted on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 while on his way home from his shop.
He was kept incommunicado for two days before his family was reached and NGN50 million was demanded as ransom to release him, family sources said.
“They called and negotiated down to NGN24 million and then later down to NGN5 million,” his friend told CrossRiverWatch.
“We suspect they are the Anglophone people in Cameroon because they share a common heritage,” he said, in apparent reference to refugees fleeing the crackdown on English speaking separatists in the Southwestern and Northwestern regions of Cameroonian. The separatists want a new republic, Ambazonia.
The Becheve community spans from Nigeria into Cameroon and the Ambazonians are currently camped across Nigeria with some undocumented refugees living in communities close to theirs.
And, Ambe’s relatives say he was about eating dinner with his wife when his friends called him to go see them in his shop at the new market.
“He parked his bike (motorcycle) at the top of the hill and trekked to his shop, and when he was done with his friends, tried to ride home unknown that a trap had been set for him.
“They used mosquito net and sticks to stop him, they bundled him away and beat him badly,” a relative said on condition if anonymity.
The abductors are said to have reached out to his Uncle, the Clan Head, Chief Sunday Echile and claimed to have transferred over NGN4 million and are asking for NGN200,000 to treat the injuries he sustained while they were beating him.
The ranch community is said to be facing increasing criminality.
Asides Ambe, on Tuesday September 21, a photographer and local tour guide, Clifford Alina is feared to have been kidnapped at the residence of Governor Ben Ayade at the resort. However, he was later discovered at the cell of the Obanliku division headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force in Sankwala.
Residents are said to believe that Mr. Clifford saw something he wasn’t meant to which may have forced the Governor’s people to whisk him away.
Becheve youths led a delegation to the Divisional headquarters, and it remained unclear as at press time whether he has been released.
Mr. Ayade began construction of his private residence near the helipad serving the Camp David presidential retreat up the ranch resort during the lockdowns in 2020 and moved in during his last trip to Northern Cross River where he said that the specialist hospital his administration is constructing in Obudu will be world class.
As at press time, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Ugbo was yet to respond to enquiry about the pace of their investigation.
When she was reached, she promised to get details and get back to this reporter as she has been away and was yet to resume office.
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