DRAMA ensued at a recent kidnapping ordeal in the Rivers State capital Port Harcourt earlier this week when a gang of kidnappers set their victims free after receiving their ransom and then proceeded to abduct those who delivered the cash to them.
However, the nine-man gang has been apprehended by the operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team in a five-hour raid. Feared across the state, the gang once boasted that they were so efficient in their criminal operations that they once kidnapped four victims on the same day.
This week's police raid, however, led to the arrest of Daniel Gabriel (33), Alaso Igodo (25), Akeodi Aselemi (34), Ayibinmotei Livinus (25), Anikuroka Marshal (33), Biebele Elijah (34) Efiye Anda (34), Daniel Lessor (31) and Isaac Reuben (27), all living within the Port Harcourt metropolis. According to the police, the gang was responsible for most of the kidnappings that took place within GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt, Borokiri General Area and YKC axis of Woji in Rivers State.
A string of events which led to the apprehension of the nine suspects started with the abduction of a woman identified as Mrs Okotie, who was kidnapped few weeks ago opposite the Royal House of Grace Church in Port Harcourt. The gang was said to have abducted her in the Mazda car they used as operational vehicle.
She later told the police that she had told the suspects that she was not feeling fine but they did not listen to her. Fortunately for Mrs Okotie, the car broke down along the way and the leader of the gang named Blackie, called for another vehicle, a Nissan Primera, which arrived shortly after but the police arrived on the scene and they fled, abandoning Mrs Okotie along with one of their rifles.
Few days after the botched kidnapping of Mrs Okotie, IRT operatives who were following up on a lead, arrested Gabriel, a taxi driver, around 2pm on October 12. When Gabriel, an Akwa-Ibom indigene living at Navy Market Borikiri, Port-Harcourt was taken in for questioning, he confessed that he had personally been involved in 15 kidnaps in the last few months in the state.
He then led the police to his house where five members of the gang were already planning another kidnap. When the police got to his house, they arrested five of his gang members and from there proceeded to Enugu Waterfront where they arrested Anikuroka Marshal, the gang’s armourer.
Upon arrest, the suspects also identified Diobele Elijah and Akodi Aselemi as their spies who go around town scouting for victims. They confessed to have three AK47 rifles, two pistols, which they use in their operations.
During interrogation, the gang also confessed to abducting a Mrs Ubah and contacting her husband, Bishop Prince Ubah, from whom they demanded a N50m ransom for her freedom. During the ensuing negotiation, the ransom for the release of the bishop’s wife was reduced to N2.8m and a place was agreed on for the family to drop the ransom.
When two of his brothers Onyeka Ani and Pastor Okezie Akara, took the agreed N2.8m to the gang, they decided to release her but kidnapped the two brothers instead. According to the police, they then demanded another N1m ransom from the bishop for his brothers and N750,000 was eventually paid for their release.
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