Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori,

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Three days after the abduction of the lecturer in the department of Science and Laboratory Technology of Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, Abiye Ogan, the lecturers of the institution are on strike.

TheNEWS learnt this morning that the lecturers said they cannot be teaching when the whereabouts of their colleague is unknown.

A source at the School said: ”We have joined in search of our fellow lecturer because yesterday it was Dr Vincent Weber who was murdered in cold blood. Today, it is Organ who knows whose turn is the next?”

Ogan was kidnapped at about 11 pm on Sunday while resting in his home in Bori, headquarters of Khana local Government area of Rivers State.

There has not been any contact from Abiye or from his abductors.

The Chairman Academic Staff of Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Ferry Gberegbe disclosed this as he called on the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, Khana local Government council and all security agencies to do everything possible to secure the release of the lecturer unhurt.

The ASUP Chairman described the kidnap as “barbaric, unacceptable for a lecturer who had just finished his biometric exercise to authenticate his status as a bonafide staff of the Polytechnic before he gets paid his salary”, ASUP chairman said.

He called on the Governor to make the Polytechnic safe for teaching and learning for staff and students due to the spate of insecurity prevalent in institution.

“We are begging the Governor to help the staff of the institution who have done their biometrics for the past two weeks for their salaries and other emoluments to be paid.”

In April this year, a lecturer, Dr Vincent Elvin Eebee of the Department of Mass Communication in the Polytechnic, was trailed on his way to Port Harcourt and shot dead.

His death came weeks after he wrote a petition to the APC about the antecedents of Solomon Ndigbara, an ex-militants who he accused has been committing heinous crimes in Yeghe community, Gokana LGA

According to the report, Dr. Eebee was shot dead alongside a 21-year-old first year female student of Mass Communication Department of the polytechnic, identified as Miss Priye, in his car.

It was learnt that they were both trailed by the gunmen on their way from Eebee’s office to Port Harcourt.

Meanwhile, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, Hon. Gbara Edman Erelo has called for the immediate and unconditional release of the kidnapped lecturer and Coordinator of the Science Laboratory Department with the Kenule Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, Abiye Ogan.

The Khana CTC boss who expressed shock at the news of the lecturer’s abduction, wondered why criminality should still be an option for some people, given the conscious efforts by the Rivers State Government to make life better for Rivers citizens.

In view of the unfortunate development, Erelo is calling on youths of the area to refrain from acts of criminality as such actions would jeopardize their future, adding that the council would do everything possible to fish out criminals in the area.

He assured them that the Council was working assiduously to engage them into meaningful ventures as, according to him, an idle mind remains the devil’s workshop.

The Khana CTC Chairman reminded the youths that they have a people-friendly Governor in the person of Governor Nyesom Wike and urged them to take advantage of his offer of amnesty to militants and criminals who would lay down their arms and embrace peace.

Erelo, while commending Governor Wike for the offer of amnesty to youths who willingly lay down their arms, assures of the Council’s readiness to accept and reintegrate them into programmes that would give them better opportunities for a brighter future.