A
former servant at the palace of the traditional ruler of Ogwashi-Uku,
Delta State, where the mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, was kidnapped has told PUNCH Metro that he gave the kidnappers the necessary information for the job.
The suspect, Chiejine Onochie, said
although the kidnappers collected N13m as ransom before the 83-year-old
Prof. Kamene Okonjo was released last December, he was not given any money and therefore, was not culpable.
He said, “I’m 32 years old and I worked
in the palace from 2007 to 2012 after which I left because the pay was
too little. A friend of mine approached me and told me that I could make a lot of money if I gave kidnappers information on how to get into the palace.
“However, after the operation, I did not
get a dime. It was later that I learnt that they had collected N13m as
ransom. I felt cheated and I left everything to God. I cannot be held
for the crime because when police started arresting people, I went to
report at the station voluntarily, I was not dragged to the station.”
Another suspect, Jideofor Ogbue, aka
Marvelous, who claimed to be the leader of the gang, said after gaining
entrance into the palace, he and his gang members did not force Okonjo
out of the palace but she followed them willingly after they had told
her that they were sent by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The 22-year-old said, “It was my friend,
Ifeanyi, that informed me about the operation. On the day of the
kidnap, we had no difficulty because Onochie had told us that the
security around the palace was lax. Although 12 of us were involved in
the operation, only eight actually went to the palace.
“We went with three AK47 rifles and a
pump-action rifle. When the woman (Okonjo) saw us, she asked who we were
and we told her that President Goodluck Jonathan sent us from Abuja to
arrest her because her daughter (Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) had embezzled
public funds.
“We took her to Kwale and her family
paid us N13m as ransom. They packaged the money in polythene bags and
dropped it around an expressway in Benin. My share was N2m.”
Chukwuma Okoh, a suspect who claimed to
be a graduate of Accounting and Finance from Ambrose Alli University,
said he joined the gang because of unemployment. He said he was not
given any money after the operation.
He said, “I’m 31 years old and I
graduated in 2007. Since then, it has been hard to get a decent job. It
was Onochie that brought the idea of kidnapping Okonjo-Iweala’s mother.
“However, as God is my witness, I did not receive a dime from the gang after the operation.”
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State
Command, Umar Manko, identified other members of the gang as Michael
Ojeabulu, Endurance Oke, Ibrahim Abubakar, Buhari Hamadora and Hassan
Oseni.
Manko, while parading the suspects, said
the suspects were arrested in different states comprising Edo, Enugu,
Delta and Anambra.
The police boss said contrary to reports, kidnapping was not on the rise in Lagos.
He said, “Marvelous was arrested in Port
Harcourt after he had perfected plans to kidnap the Commissioner of
Commerce in Anambra State.
“As you can see, these kidnappers do not
operate in Lagos State, they just come and go. You therefore cannot say
kidnapping is on the rise in Lagos.”
… gang kills 72-year-old woman after collecting ransom
Meanwhile, the same gang of kidnappers
also confessed to killing a 72-year-old woman, Regina Obi, after
collecting a ransom of N2m from her family.
The suspects told PUNCH Metro that Obi
was killed because one of their gang members was killed during a gun
duel with the police some days earlier.
Onochie said, “After the first operation
in which I was not paid, they approached me again for another operation
and told me that they would pay me this time around. They said they
needed information about the family of Obi, who owns a big hotel in
Delta State.
“I traced the residence of their mother
and told them how they could kidnap her. She sells land so I told the
gang to tell her that they had a good deal and when she follows them to
conclude transactions, they should kidnap her.”
Marvelous said he was not around on the
day Obi was killed. He however said it was another gang member, Peter,
that pulled the trigger.
“We demanded N2m from the family and
they paid immediately. However, because Peter’s brother had been killed
during a police raid some days ago, he took the anger out on the old
lady and killed her. I did not kill anybody; I’m a kidnapper, not a
murderer,” he said.
