*** This news story has been updated to say the abducted man is a distant relative of Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources Minister.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, (THEWILL) – Gunmen early Thursday abducted one of the relatives of Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, Mr. Joseph Agama, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
According to the Bayelsa State police command, the victim was abducted from his family home in waterlogged Yenaka community, located in Yenagoa Local Government, by several gunmen who thereafter sped off in a speed boat to an unknown location.
The police said the abduction was reported by Maxwell Agama, the victim’s father.
There has been no contact from the kidnappers since the incident. However, sources close to the Minister told THEWILL that the victim is a distant relative.
“The Minister sympathises with the family of the victim having just suffered the same trauma recently,” a senior aide to the Minister told THEWILL.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in the oil-rich Niger-Delta, the hotbed of militancy in the West African nation.
THEWILL recalls that Deziani’s sister, Osiyo Agama, was abducted in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, last year but regained her freedom after she was rescued by authorities.
