Gunmen have attacked one of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants in the 2023 gubernatorial election in Benue State, Terwase Orbunde, and abducted his wife and house help.
It was gathered that Orbunde, Chief of Staff to the immediate past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, escaped with a gunshot wound to his right arm in the attack on Friday, April 12, 2024.
Confirming the incident on Saturday, the Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Sewuese Anene, said the gunmen attacked Orbunde and members of his household in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, while returning from the farm.
Anene said Orbunde reported the attack to the police which dispatched a team of detectives to the scene of the incident and recovered the politician’s car.
She assured that the assailants would be tracked and arrested and the abducted freed.
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Eyewitnesses said Orbunde, his wife and the house help had gone to inspect the weeding of their farm located close to the road.
They said after paying the workers, five gunmen attacked them and ordered the victims to follow them to an unknown destination, but discarded bleeding Orbunde who was too slow to keep pace.
The gunshot caused villagers and passers-by to scamper to safety in different directions, the eyewitnesses added.
A family source further disclosed that the assailants, on Saturday, demanded a N100 million ransom for the release of the two women abducted.
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