By CECILY ASSON Friday, June 22 2012

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KIDNAPPED: TT Regiment Corporal Nigel Sinaswee...

POLICE including officers from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit (AKU) were last night searching for a soldier from the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, who according to reports, is believed to have been kidnapped on Wednesday night while driving in Felicity, central Trinidad.

The soldier, Regiment Corporal Nigel Sinaswee , 40, a soldier for the past 17 years, is now unaccounted for. Yesterday, Warrant Officer Lester Hills of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment confirmed Cpl Sinaswee’s disappearance and told Newsday investigations are ongoing.

A close female relative who was in his company at the time was detained for several hours before being released.

According to police sources, at about 11.30 pm on Wednesday, Cpl Sinasawee of Roystonia, Couva, was driving a black Mazda Familia stationwagon in the company of a 44-year-old female relative, who is a self-employed contractor. The two were in the car which was proceeding north along Connector Road, Pierre Road, Felicity.

According to the police, the woman asked Sinaswee to stop the vehicle as she needed to relieve herself in the bushes. As the soldier stopped the car at the side of the road, a blue-coloured Nissan B12 car and a black Mazda car stopped to the back and front of Sinaswee’s car, effectively preventing the soldier from speeding off.

Three men alighted from the two cars and attacked Sinaswee, taking him out of his car by force and bundling him into the B12 car.

Both cars then sped off while the female relative used her cellular phone to contact police. Both cars were last seen proceeding at high speed north along Connector Road.

An All Point Bulletin was issued advising all police officers on mobile patrol to be on the lookout for the two cars. Throughout Wednesday night and yesterday, police were busy searching several areas in central and south Trinidad. Roadblocks, Newsday was told, were also set up and vehicles searched.

Up to press time, the soldier’s whereabouts were unknown. Central Division detectives and officers from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit are investigating. When Newsday visited the soldier’s home in Roystonia, a woman who answered our calls, said that there was no one available to give an interview and then quickly walked back into the house.