kidnap kingpin fingers police officer, ex Enugu-govt top official as accomplices- Vanguard
By Cyril Ozor & Chinedu Adonu
Tension over alleged sponsors
However, tension has pervaded the whole of Igboeze North Local Government following the failure by security agents to arrest and question the alleged sponsors of the suspects. The leader of the kidnap suspects who admitted that he had participated in several kidnap cases before his arrest, last week, reportedly mentioned one of his exploits as the kidnap and murder of Mrs Adiza Ogbo, 85, mother of the former Commissioner for Chieftaincy Matters in Enugu State, Chief Goddy Ogbo, on September 15, 2013 at about 4am.
Crime Guard learned that during interrogation, the suspect who hails from Igogoro in the same Local government area with the murdered octogenarian mother of the former Commissioner also revealed that the gang in the area had two sponsors including a policeman serving with the Anti- Robbery Squad, SARS, in Enugu and another former protocol officer at the Governor’s Office, Enugu. The former Commissioner’s mother, Adiza Ogbo, late wife of a traditional ruler, Igwe Omale Nwogbo was murdered and buried in a shallow grave at Obollo Afor in Udenu Local Government Area of the state by the suspect’s gang members. The police later recovered the dead body of the grandmother after some of the gang members were arrested. However, the suspect who is the leader of the gang, escaped.
Role of the alleged sponsors
According to sources, the indicted policeman usually protected and supported them with logistics while the former protocol officer acted as the go-between with the security agencies each time they ran into trouble with law enforcement agents or the state-owned vigilante group, Neighbourhood Watch. He also frustrated and destroyed evidences that could lead to their successful prosecution, if arrested. A top member of Igboeze North Neighbourhood Watch who was among those that arrested the suspect in his hideout after rescuing their victim, Pa Ojobo, alive told Crime Guard that Ujah had been on their wanted list for over three years.
The suspect who spoke with Crime Guard shortly after he was arrested by a joint patrol team of both the police and Neighbourhood Watch operatives said, “I have been doing big things but I did not participate in the abduction of Pa Ojobo. I only got involved in this case after he had been kidnapped. It was when things became difficult that I was invited. I did not participate in the kidnap myself. I know that I may not survive in this case because of the gunshot wounds I sustained in the process of my arrest. That is why I am telling you the truth. I swear that everything I am telling you is true….”
Gruesome murder of a couple
The peace in Enugu Ezike which is known for producing quality palm wine, Palm oil and palm kernel was shattered some years ago, when some daredevil criminals killed natives of Inyi, Umuagama, Okpo and Amaja in barbaric manner. In the case of Amaja, a couple, Marcel Abba Ossai and Jecinta, his wife, a breastfeeding mother, were gruesomely murdered in the midnight, their killers cut their throats without removing anything from the compound. According to the traditional ruler of Amaja, His Royal Highness, Igwe Ignatius Idoko, aka Atlas, Ossai was a palm wine tapper who also, cultivated cassava, maize and yam around his compound. The victims were fast asleep when their killers arrived and proceeded to kill Marcel, the bread winner before snatching the child being breast-fed by Jacinta from her and slitting her throat.
Others, who spoke on the condition of anonymity at Amaja, informed Crime Guard that an unidentified man, whose mouth was covered with a black cloth, was seen in a bush separating Amaja from Adupi in Benue State. The victims lived at the border with his family. Before the gruesome murder of the couple, It was gathered that a woman had found an abducted man very close to their residence and ran back to inform her husband who consequently alerted members of the vigilante group in the area. The vigilante group subsequently alerted the nearest police station in the area, which sent detectives to free the kidnap victim.
Revenge mission
It was gathered that the abductors of the unidentified victim usually visited him between 2 am and 3.30 am each day to feed him, but when they visited the area where they left their victim in the bush on the fateful night, they were disappointed that the people living nearby had alerted the police men who rescued their victim. In anger, they went to the nearby house to kill the couple.
Teenage survivor narrates ugly tale
An 11- year -old daughter of the deceased, Chinonso narrated how her parents were killed in cold blood at the palace of the Onyishi Amaja, Eze Nwidoko. She said that the assailants killed her father before killing her mother. “We were sleeping in the night when my mother noticed that some people were flashing their torches outside but were not talking. As she was talking, the people came into our room and took her baby who was sucking her breast away from her and threw him to my five-year-old brother, Ikedi, before cutting my mother’s neck.
The whole place was dark. We did not know when they left. After waiting for some time, I went to my father’s room and saw that his head was also cut. I used the lantern which was lit by my mother before we went to bed. Later I came out with my brother, Ikedi but the whole place was still dark.
It was later in the morning that we called those nearby who started shouting and calling others to come and see what had happened,” Chinonso who was carrying the last child of her mother said. The traditional ruler of Amaja, Igwe Ignatius Idoko said,”We have been appealing to the relevant authorities to establish a police station between us and the people of Benue and Kogi states who are our neighbours without success. Now that they have succeeded in arresting their kingpin, I hope they will do the needful and give us adequate security, “he stated.
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