A mobile policeman has been shot dead by kidnappers who abducted a 73-year-old ex-commissioner of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, at Effurun in Delta State.

The mobile policeman, who is one of the two security agents on duty at Egbe Layout, Off Sokoh Estate, was said to have unknowingly accosted the kidnappers while they were fleeing with the victim, and was shot in the process.

It was gathered, yesterday, that the kidnappers had already contacted the family of the ex-DESOPADEC commissioner, asking for N3 billion ransom to release him.

A source said the kidnappers trailed and laid ambush for the victim at his home and as soon as his security escort disembarked from the vehicle to open the gate, they surrounded him and commandeered the vehicle out of the compound with the owner inside.

At the security post, one of the policemen suspected there was something fishy, as the vehicle had just passed the point not too long, and the police orderly of the ex-commissioner was not sitting on the front seat.

He flagged down the vehicle and asked the occupants to come down for normal check, but was fired at by one of the kidnappers and died on the spot.

The Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Warri, recently raised alarm over the increasing rate of kidnapping in the oil city and environs and called on the state government to intervene.

No fewer than 10 persons had been kidnapped in the past two months.