Gunmen storm petroleum minister's family home, kidnap cousin

Gunmen have stormed Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani-Allison Madueke’s community in Bayelsa state and kidnapped her cousin, Bozie Agama on Thursday, March 19.

          According to Punch, the gunmen arrived Yanaka community in the Yenagoa Local Government area of Bayelsa around 12.05am, where the minister’s brother lives.


It was gathered that the abductors primarily targeted the victim’s father, Chief Monume, who is Allison Madueke’s brother, but when they could not find their target, they abducted his 20-year-old son instead.

The gunmen were said to have fired warning shots into the air before whisking away the victim to an unknown destination.

“They (abductors) came in the midnight and took the man away. We understand that they wanted the father, but later settled for the son.

“They are relatives of the petroleum minister. We don’t know where they took him to and they have yet to state their motive,” an anonymous told Punch.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Asinim Buswatt, confirmed the abduction.

“At about 12.30am on Thursday, one Mrs. Maxwell Agama of Yenaka community reported that his son, Joseph Agama, aged 20, was abducted by some unknown gunmen.

“We are still working to know the number of the gunmen that carried out the attack. We don’t know the motive behind it, but our men in the marine division have been alerted to the incident,” Butswat said.

It would be recalled that the minister’s younger sister, Osiyo Agama, was kidnaped in Port Harcourt, River State five months ago, but was later rescued by a combined team of Joint Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield and the Department of State Security Service.