Four armed men stormed the residence of a Liverpool based octogenarian, Chief Edwin Chime at Obinagu Town in Uni area of Enugu State on April 2 and kidnapped him.
It was reported that they arrived his residence in an Audi 80 saloon car and armed with three locally made guns.
The kidnappers were said to have contacted his wife, demanding for N200 million twenty-four hours after his abduction. The amount was subsequently reduced to N500, 000 and the 92-year-old man was released, 48 hours after.
The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, had reportedly deployed operatives of the Special Intelligence Response Team, SIRT, to Enugu State to assist the State Commissioner of Police, Ekechukwu Nwodibo, in tracking down the kidnappers when received the report on the incident.
It was gathered that the SIRT operatives, on arriving Enugu State, went after users of the mobile phone which was used for in the ransom negotiation and they ended up apprehending three of the suspects, including one of the octogenarian’s nephews , who organized the kidnap.
Sources disclosed that the suspects, identified as, Collins Chime, Chinonso Onyebuchi and Chukwudi Azemenei were arrested separately by the operatives at Nnsuka, Enugu and Udi areas of the State. Onyebuchi, who is 28 years old, was described as the leader of the gang and ransom negotiator, Azemene, 22, was said to be the one who picked the ransom from the drop point, while Chime, 20, provided information and initiated the kidnap. It was further disclosed that the three suspects were arrested less than eight hours after they released their victim, and the sum of N170, 000 was recovered from them, while one other member of the gang, identified as Ifeanyi is still at large.
The Enugu State, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ekechukwu Nwodibo who paraded the suspects before newsmen said the arrest of the suspected kidnappers was made through a careful operation following a tip-off by some public spirited individuals in the state.
He noted that two notorious gangs of kidnappers were rounded up by the police, explaining that the first syndicate led by Etim Amos of Abiakpo Ibo Road, Ikot Ekpene was behind the kidnapping of Mr John Abugu at GRA, Enugu; Mrs. Jane Ekweremadu and Mr Brooks Okwara at Agric Bank Junction, Independence Layout Enugu as well as Mrs Sandra Onu at New Haven, Enugu.
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