Igbo youths under the aegis of Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), on Saturday handed a seven-day ultimatum to security agencies in the country to fish out kidnappers of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, His Eminence Rev. Samuel Uche and other ministers.

Handing down the ultimate to the security chiefs, the youths said they were no longer comfortable that armed herdsmen were freely ravaging the zone to kidnap people.

Uche and two other ministers of the Methodist church were kidnapped last Sunday at Umunneochi, Abia state.

They were released after a N100million ransom was paid to the kidnappers. Uche had told reporters after his release that Fulani herders perpetrated the act.

Reacting to the development in a statement, National President COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem, described the abduction of the leader of the Methodist Church and other Ministers with him in Igboland as the height of insult against Christianity and Igbo nation.

“If it was Igbo youths that committed such crime by kidnapping their religious leader in the North, will they have accepted it laying low? The answer is no. It is worrisome that such evil practice will be going on in Umunneochi that harbours so many military formations and checkpoints on her roads.

“This kind of disgraceful act is going on in Abia state because the army have abandoned their primary duty of providing security and resorted to collecting bribes with impunity on our roads,” the group said.
The youths also called on the army to stop threatening the Prelate for saying the truth about what he saw while in captivity. (The Guardian: Excluding headline)

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