By Sah Terence Animbom
It was a tense atmosphere in prelude to the senatorial elections in some areasin the Northwest region, as several attempts of kidnap and military response characterized were the order of the day.
This began with the attempt made to kidnap the Sub Divisional officer for Njinikom during the morning hours of Thursday March 22nd 2018.
Sources recount that some dangerous looking boys suspected to be ‘Amba fighters’ were seen early that morning moving towards the DOs residence at up station Njinikom, and immediately, the DO’s attention was alerted.
The DO in return called in the military officers in his Sub Division who were only three in number, to secure him.
The story continued that the three gendarmes went shooting in the air so as to scare off the assailants who had hidden in an old building opposite the DOs residence, waiting to kidnap him on his way to work.
It is said that the boys were numerous and thus scared the gendarmes from engaging in a direct shoot-out with them.
The strange boys succeeded to escape before military re-enforcement could reach the gendarmes from the Divisional head quarters.
The action spurred an immediate ghost town in Njinikom, stalling all movements and business operations for the rest of the day. All cars on transit through Njinikom were halted and passengers asked to identify selves, while cars were thoroughly searched.
Also, in a related issue, it is alleged that some two councilors were almost kidnapped at Anyajua, in Belo Sub Division, in a bid to stop them from participating in the Sunday senatorial elections.
Sources say following a three day ghost town declared in Belo by ‘Amba boys’, some guys tried kidnapping a councilor but later released him and used his phone to call another councilor to threaten him. This action spurred military intervention that went into the quarters and had two people shot.
One man died at DziChami, and a certain native doctor nicknamed TB Joshua was shot on the leg at Anyajua.
Breaking Sunday morning, serious threats were reported to have come from Belo, as the child of a councilor was allegedly kidnapped, road blocked by ‘Amba Fighters’ and gunshots in the air by the military, to ensure movement of councilors to the divisional headquarters for the senatorial.