It was a gale of kidnap­pings in Abia State over the weekend as the wife of a serving police officer, his daugh­ter, another woman and her two children were abducted at different lo­cations in Aba axis.

It was gathered that one Cletus Oke, a serving po­lice officer with the Riv­ers State Police Command, was travelling to his village with some members of his family before the incident.

On getting to Osusu Abali in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government at about 9 p.m, two armed men on a motorcycle halted his Volvo car and ordered the occupants out, it was gath­ered.

The armed men were said to have beaten the po­lice officer thoroughly be­fore abducting his wife and their 18-year-old daughter.

It was not yet clear whether the hoodlums had established contact with the police officer to make any demand for ransom.

In a similar incident, gunmen kidnapped a woman and two of her children at Ohuru near Aba.

Checks by Daily Sun revealed that the woman, identified as Mrs. Ogo­chukwu and her two chil­dren, Chika and Favour, were returning to their home at about 8.30p.m in a Honda Sports Utility Ve­hicle (SUV) when the gun­men blocked the vehicle and abducted their victims and took them to an undis­closed location.

The hoodlums were said to have later established contact with family mem­bers of their victims but were reportedly demand­ing an outrageous amount as ransom.

When contacted, Abia State Commissioner of Po­lice, Adamu Ibrahim, told journalists that his men at Owerrinta in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area had recovered the SUV.

Adamu stated that effort had been intensified by the police to ensure that those kidnapped were released unharmed and uncondi­tionally.