Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, have arrested a gang of kidnappers, who allegedly abducted and killed a senior staff of the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation, John Iheanacho, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The kidnappers, led by an acclaimed Evangelist, Prosper Nwoke, collected N5 million, in Dollar, and still refused to release the NNPC staff, who was also the President of Eastern Zone, Investment Cooperative Society Limited, whose health was deteriorating from the gunshot he suffered during the bid to abduct him.
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The kidnapper, who also included Samuel Ikechukwu Alexander, aka Pillar; Chima Mark; Stephen Iniobong; Fabiyawari Marcus; Chikere Eleke; and Teddy Ifeanyi, then buried Iheanacho in a shallow grave.
Iheanacho was abducted as he made to drive into his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with N50 million ransom demanded.
The ransom money, paid in Dollar, was said to have been collected from Nwoke’s wife in two batches.
However, while in their den, the kidnappers had shot Iheanacho, with the wound deteriorating while negotiation on the N50 million demanded as ransom was in progress.
After collecting the first batch of the money, the kidnappers, despite realising that Iheanacho’s injury was festering daily, refused to release him but demanded for a balance of N30 million.
A police source said: “Two among the four suspects involved in the kidnap and murder of Iheanacho led IRT men to a forest where he was buried.
“He was buried in a shallow grave in Abia State.
“He was shot by his abductors and taken to an uncompleted building in a community in Ndoki, Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, where he died of bullet wounds.”
Kyari said the gang members, from Abia, Imo, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States, also abducted two female victims alongside Iheanacho.
He disclosed that the two female victims were raped and later made to pay N1.5 million each before they were released.
The police added: “Iheanacho was shot while his kidnappers were attempting to abduct him.
“He was kept captive in an environment that was not conducive for his health and injury.
“The kidnappers’ camp is located inside the swampy Umuosi community in Afam area of Oyingbo.”
Nwoke, 28, a father of four from Abia State, said he was deep in religion before he got converted into crime.
He said: “I was an evangelist before I became a kidnapper.
“I can preach and quote every part of the bible off heart.
“If police can give a last chance, I’ll never return to crime again!
“We usually say our prayers before embarking on any operation.
“We pray so that God will take policemen off our way and stop any confrontation with them.
“My wife left after I was arrested and taken to Port Harcourt Prison. I went into crime in the year 2016. Before then, I was selling fairly used clothes. While doing this business, I lived with my elder brother at Chuba area of Port Harcourt. He later relocated to Sierra Leone. I moved out of his house and rented an apartment at Afam area of Oyingbo.
“Anele was a big spender at that night club. I admired and later made him my friend. I asked him the kind of job he was into. He claimed to be a businessman. We got closer and he confessed that he was into armed robbery and kidnapping.
He said that I could join if I was interested. Since I needed money to fend for my wife and children, I accepted Anele’s offer. He linked me to two other members of his gang, East-Man and Gift.
“We once attacked a residential estate on Artillery area of Port Harcourt. We went with two guns and robbed occupants of the estate of their phones and laptops.
We took the stolen items to one Alhaji at Presidential Hotel Junction, off Aba Road, Port Harcourt to sell them. I don’t know the amount Anele got from the Alhaji, but I was given N25, 000. I took the money to Oyingbo Market and bought some food stuffs.
A week later, policemen arrested Anele, who led them to my house. They arrested other gang members. Police took Alhaji to his house and recovered all the stolen items. The items were returned to their owners. We were later granted bail.
“I went back to selling fairly used clothes. Two weeks later, one of my friends at Oyingbo, Chima, came to tell me that his friend, Available, had been disturbing him about an operation. The operation was to kidnap a woman. Chima said that Available needed someone who would complete the gang.
I brought in Anele, and his two friends. I linked them up to Available. After careful planning, Anele brought out his guns and we waylaid the woman on her street at Oyingbo. We kidnapped her and took her to an Island in Umuosi Community in Afam area of Rivers State.
One of my friends, Chikere, was the person who provided the camp. Anele gave Chikere some money to provide food and other items we would need in caring for the hostages. Anele was also the person communicating with the woman’s husband.
“I used my own share of the money to buy a bale of fairly used clothes. I don’t know what transpired between Anele and the other guys, but they had issues with sharing formula. They quarrelled and police got involved and arrested them. The police also came to arrest me.
“While in prison, I heard about a man called Italian. He is a notorious criminal and had many men working for him. He can sponsor any robbery or kidnapping operation.
He also used to supply arms and ammunition for operations. He operates within Rivers and other South-South and South Eastern states of the country. I met many of his boys in Port Harcourt Prison. One of my cellmates linked me to Italian.
“I told him that I needed his help, I had no work. He asked me to meet him at Okrika. He accommodated me. I saw several men at his home; men I had earlier met in prison. I spent a month with him. One of his boys, Ahoda Unit-Head, said that we should ask for rifles from Italian.
When we went to Italian, he said we must bring his ‘return’ on any operation we carried out with the gun. He gave us a rifle; we took it to Afam and gave it to Chikere to keep. I started looking for an operational vehicle.
“I called Ahoda Unit-Head, Ti-money and Samuel. We went out and kidnapped a woman in December 2017.
We took her to a container terminal around school land area, off Aba Expressway. We kept the woman for four days. Her husband told us that he had no money; he had just finished burying one of his relatives. He paid us N200, 000 and we released his wife. I took N50, 000 to Italian and Ti-Money.
I and others shared the remaining money. By the end of January, 2018, we went for another operation. The abduction was done along Shell Road, in Onyigbo. We saw a man making calls in a Mercedes Benz 4Matic. We abducted him and abandoned his vehicle because it has a tracker. We took him across the river.
We were seven persons that took part in that operation. Ti-Money, Steven and Samuel are those that I brought into the gang. Chikere and Marcus were in charge of supplying food stuffs to Ti-money and others at the camp.
“The man spent six days with us before his family paid N1.7m ransom. I gave Marcus N100, 000, Chikere N150, 000 and we used N350, 000 to buy our operational car. We gave Samuel N200, 000, Steven N200, 000, Ti-Money got N300, 000, Chima got N150, 000 and I took the remaining N35000. I didn’t give any money to Italian. When he called, I told him that I used his share to buy an operational vehicle.
“We saw a new Toyota Camry around Irebe area off Aba Road, Port Harcourt, but the man escaped. On our way out, we saw a Toyota car; the driver was driving into the estate. We suspected that the occupant must be a very rich person. We quickly went after the car. Before we knew it, we had driven into a barricade mounted by some local vigilante men.
“The man drove passed the vigilante men; we followed the man until he got to his gate, then we moved down to the end of the street. We reversed to where the man was and then we all came out of our car. I came out with my gun and ordered him to step out of his car. Ti-money and others held him, but he started struggling.
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He asked us his offence was, I told him that we were kidnappers, that all we wanted was his money. While I was saying this, some of the vigilante men started approaching. I went close to the man and he suddenly grabbed my rifle. He started struggling with me.
I didn’t know what happened next, but I fired two shots. The man got hit on the knee. We took him and his vehicle away. On our way to Chikere’s community, we saw a woman driving a Toyota Four Runner, and then we went after her and also kidnapped her.
We took her and the wounded man to the Island across Chikere’s Community and kept them there. I took the man’s vehicle to Aba, and then Steven called someone from the prison that linked us to someone in Aba. The person bought the two vehicles.
“I used the money to buy food items and drugs for the hostages. We asked Iheanacho to pay N50m ransom. Iheanacho said that his would pay us N5m. He later asked his wife to increase the money to N6m. Four days later, his wife brought the money to Mbaise area of Imo State. I was on top of a tree, monitoring him. He dropped the money inside a tree.
We moved immediately to Aba and the husband of the woman in our camp brought N1m. We went to a bar in Aba, leaving the money with Junior. Junior actually came to assist us in collecting the ransom; he ran away with our money.”
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