The Rivers State Police Command has apprehended a serial killer and leader of a cult group, Mitchel Tamuno . The Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmad Muhammad told newsmen on Friday, that luck ran out of the gang when a 14 year old kidnap victim escaped from them . He disclosed that the girl escaped with a ladder she found within an uncompleted building where she was held hostage, recalling that four of the kidnappers who raped her, were fast asleep when the she escaped.
He said, “She (victim) then followed the sound of vehicles she was hearing from the road and got to the main road, saw a man driving a car, waved the car down and told the driver that she escaped from kidnappers’ den.
“She appealed to the driver of the car to help her call her father, who is a pastor in Bayelsa State. The Good Samaritan called the father of the victim and told him the development and the father directed the man to take his daughter to any nearby police station.
“Before then, the kidnappers had already put a call across to the father of their victim, demanding for ransom of N10m. They equally forwarded an account number detail to the victim’s father.
“One of the kidnapers (Godwin Pina) went to the bank immediately he noticed that the sum of N50,000 had been paid into the account for the upkeep of their victim, pending when the ransom demanded would be raised.
When the suspect was arrested, he then opened up that their boss, Mitchel, was staying in Okrika. Then the Anti-kidnapp unit moved to Abam in Okrika and arrested Mitchel and 10 other boys in his house.
“Two AK 47 rifles were recovered from him. On interrogation, he (Mitchel) said he had other two AK 47 rifles with one Iyalla Appolos somewhere in Azuboko. We moved in there and Iyalla was arrested and the two AK 47 rifles were recovered from him,” Muhammad added. Speaking further on the arrest, Muhammad, said another gang member, Pina was arrested while he went to the bank to withdraw the N50,000 their victim’s father paid into their (kidnappers) account.
He explained that Pina was able to give the police information that led to the arrest of Mitchel and other gang members, Narrating why he was arrested by the police, Mitchel stated “I have never shed innocent blood. We only kill people that come to kill us because we know the people we are fighting. The AK 47 rifles that were recovered belong to us as a group. I bought them from one Mr. Ifeanyi in Aba, Abia State. He sold the first two to us at N250,000 each and the second batch of two for N280,000 each.
“We only have four guns in our possession. We use the guns to fight our opponents. Our opponents are the Greenlanders and we fight for supremacy. I have never killed anybody and cut the head. Those who behead do so because they want the other group to feel the pain.
“When you come, you see your friend dead and without a head, you feel the pain. The fight is not on a daily basis. When we get information about them, we go after them and when they (rival cult group) get information about us, they come after us too. I have lost count of how many people I have killed because they all happened on different occasions.” while pleading for leniency, he promised to go back to his fish farming business if pardoned. Another member of the gang, ( the gang’s informant) Godwin Pina, 23 year old labourer, denied being a member of any cult group, but only gave information on how to kidnap his neighbour, the 14-year-old girl. “They (gang members) called me that the girl had run away. One of my friends, who is at large (Bobo mi) informed me that the girl ran away. I regret my action. Francis, Bobomi and Collins also kidnapped Madam Lizzy.
“I am only involved in the kidnap of the girl, but I did not take part in raping her. Mitchel is our number one man in our group,” Pina added
