Major Josiah, an army officer abducted in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, has been rescued from the deep forest of Tuomo community with the help of a palm-wine tapper and local lumberers.
The officer was kidnapped on Sunday night from his lodge by armed youths, who ransacked his rooms before taking him to the creeks of Burutu Local Government Area.
According to community sources, Major Josiah was discovered in a canoe, his hands tied and sustaining gunshot wounds to his leg and hands. One source told Vanguard:
“A young girl left her father’s palm-wine camp in a canoe early this morning to check her fishing net, and in the process she saw the army officer sitting inside a canoe in the distance. She rushed back home to tell her dad what she had seen. Her father, on getting the news, followed his daughter to the scene and found Major Josiah sitting in the canoe. He untied him and took him to his camp. He went to another camp belonging to lumberers and told them the situation. They brought him in a canoe through the brook that leads to the community this morning.”
A second source described a similar sequence of events: “The army officer was heard shouting and wailing in the deep forest of Tuomo community. That is the forest where palm-wine tappers and lumberers establish their camps. On hearing the anguished cries, some lumberers traced the voice to the location and found him with gunshot wounds on one of his legs and hands. They took him to a palm-wine tapper’s camp and decided to bring him to the community. They took him in a canoe and rowed through the brook to the community this morning.”
The community subsequently alerted the Bomadi Division of the military Joint Task Force (JTF), who took Major Josiah into custody.