The forgotten five: Families of abducted funeral guests wait in vain three years after
Godfrey George tells the story of five men who were kidnapped in the Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State in September 2020 at the funeral of an influential man and have not been seen since then
Dreaming is the only way Nelly feels closer to his missing father. Whenever his eyelids close to this world, they open up in another, where his father, Dagogo Jackmay, pays him a visit in his sleep.
Dagogo, a middle-aged small-scale contractor, alongside four other men from Bonny Local Government Area, Rivers State, on September 12, 2020, were abducted by gunmen at the funeral of a prominent chief, Amaopusenibo Kalada-Banigo.
It has been almost three years and they have not returned home.
The gunmen took with them that day, not just the men, but the hopes of five families.
The last time Nelly saw his father was the day before the incident.
His father had asked him to accompany him to where he (Dagogo) would board a taxi to the Bonny Jetty.
As they both walked together, father and son, hand-in-hand, Dagogo told Nelly he was proud of him and shared the plans he had for him and their family.
Specifically, he shared how the coming of the Train 7 project by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas would change their lives.
These promises, like shadows, vanished with the darkness that enveloped them the moment relatives called his mother, Cordelia, to tell her that Dagogo had been kidnapped.
Nelly did not know until he saw a picture of his father online, collaged with those of the other victims. It was tagged, ‘The Banigo Five Kidnap’, named after the village where the incident happened.
“It was like my soul left my body. I was shocked and I did not even know who to ask if what I saw was true,” Nelly said when our correspondent visited his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Hope and hopelessness
Nelly said though his father had yet to hit it big, he was hard-working and could go to any length to provide for their family.
Specifically, he shared how the coming of the Train 7 project by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas would change their lives.
These promises, like shadows, vanished with the darkness that enveloped them the moment relatives called his mother, Cordelia, to tell her that Dagogo had been kidnapped.
Nelly did not know until he saw a picture of his father online, collaged with those of the other victims. It was tagged, ‘The Banigo Five Kidnap’, named after the village where the incident happened.
“It was like my soul left my body. I was shocked and I did not even know who to ask if what I saw was true,” Nelly said when our correspondent visited his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Hope and hopelessness
Nelly said though his father had yet to hit it big, he was hard-working and could go to any length to provide for their family.
To make ends meet, Dagogo reportedly spent more time in Bonny than he did with his family in Port Harcourt.
Nelly stated that he occasionally sent money home, and always called to find out how they were doing.
“In a year, he might spend three months with us and the remaining nine in Bonny, where he worked on different jobs and contracts to put food on our table,” Nelly stated.
His mother worked as a school administrator with a government school.
Her salary is barely enough to do much, but Nelly said with combined efforts from his parents, they lived ‘comfortably’. Until his father was kidnapped.
Multiple sources, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH about the incident, said everything happened fast.
The pallbearers had carried the remains of Chief Banigo to the cemetery and as he was being interred, some masked men, riding on a boat and armed to the teeth, stormed the premises, desecrated the corpse and shot sporadically, wounding many.
They whisked along with them five men – Warisenibo Daniel Hart, Thompson Micah, Theophilus Ibiama, Dagogo, and his friend, Sunny Hart. he burial was held in Finiapiri-Ama (Amauda) village, Banigo Isile-Ogono community, Bonny.
The then-leader of the Bonny Legislative Assembly, Miriam Hart, was severely injured and rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Port Harcourt, where sources said she fought for her life for months.
Some high-profile guests, who were at the event that day were the then Chairman of Bonny LGA, the late David Rogers-Irimagha; the lawmaker representing Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Abinye Pepple; and the LGA Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Daniel Wilcox, who escaped by a whisker.
Other survivors included the Deputy Leader of the Eighth Assembly, Dieprinye Jumbo; the then Chief Whip of the House, Fiberesima Pepple; a councillor representing Ward Two, Kingston Robert Hart; among others.
A source told Saturday PUNCH that one of the victims, Sunny, was the husband of the first daughter of the deceased, who was a senior magistrate with the Rivers State Judiciary.
The then Rivers State Police command spokesperson, Nnamdi Omoni, confirmed the incident and said investigations were ongoing to unmask the perpetrators.
Almost three years later, the criminals are still at large and the victims too, are nowhere to be found, dead or alive.
Nelly said his mother received a call from one of their extended relatives, who claimed the kidnappers demanded N60m for his father’s release.
“Even if we sell this house and everything in it, it will not give us N60m. So, we knew that our hopes were slim,” he said.
Confused about what to do, Nelly said his mother began to make calls to potential donors, who they thought could help.
But after a few days, nothing substantial was raised.
The 45-year-old woman said she was left with four kids to care for on a salary that was barely enough when her husband was around.
Buried without corpse
As the kidnappers called the Jackmays, they also called the family of Daniel Hart.
Their breadwinner, who is a titled citizen in Bonny, Daniel, was among the victims.
His daughter, Rita, recounting the incident in tears, said the family had not been the same since her father’s disappearance.
In an earlier interview, days after her father’s kidnap, she said the kidnappers demanded N10m for the release of the Warisenibo.
She said the morning after the kidnap, the abductors called and told them that they would keep beating her father till the money was paid.
Stressing that the family would not be able to afford the huge sum, she begged the authorities to secure her father’s release.
Her mother, Ibifiri, said she was afraid that her husband might die as he was diabetic.
Sunny, who was also kidnapped, is Daniel’s younger brother, Saturday PUNCH learnt.
Ibifiri said her husband was a victim of mistaken identity, as he was not as wealthy as the hoodlums thought.
She said since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, her husband did not go out because of his ill health.
Narrating how he was kidnapped, she said Warisenibo had already joined a boat returning to Bonny Main Town from Ishile-Ogono Banigo when the gunmen struck and carried him and the four others into the creeks.
“I beg the kidnappers to release my husband. He is a retiree and a senior citizen and he is diabetic and prone to cold. I fear for his life.
“It was he and his younger brother, Hon. Sunny Hart that went to bury his father-in-law in Banigo when this incident happened,” she had said.
After a few months of waiting and hoping, the Harts summoned courage and buried the chief without his corpse.
“A burial was organised and some items representing him were put in the coffin and was buried”, a source close to the family told Saturday PUNCH.
Dreams deferred
For 21-year-old Nelly, his dream of becoming a medical doctor has been put on hold since his father’s disappearance. Punch
