The police boss who linked the kidnapers to the
abduction and murder of Odidi Nweze, however, absolved the Oxpharm Specialties
Ltd, Satellite Town, the pharmaceutical store where it was reported that the
deceased was kidnapped before his subsequent murder.
A visibly elated Manko tongue-lashed critics of the
command saying, “Those who are in the habit of criticizing the police can now
see that we are not sleeping. We are not saying don’t criticise, but it should
be objective. It is my determination that we will never rest on our oars until
peace returns to the state.”
He added: “I am happy to announce to you that we have
been able to smash a syndicate of kidnappers who have been linked to series of
kidnap incidents in the state. They are about eight of them including a woman.
The ring leader has been arrested and he gave his name as Kelvin Emenike 31,
who lives in Port Harcourt.
“He normally comes to Lagos for his ‘business
transaction’ after which he travels back to Port Harcourt; but we have been
able to track him back to Lagos for the same ‘business proposal’ and that
‘business proposal’ is what you are now seeing. This group also includes a
woman who manages their ransom and she is also responsible for disbursing the
funds to the gang members.
“In possession of these hoodlums were one AK 49 assault
riffle with 78 7.6mm ammunition, five magazines, one Toyota pick-up van, one
Toyota Matrix vehicle and one Boxer motor cycle. With these, they abduct their
victims, blind fold them and take them to their hideout, an uncompleted
building somewhere in Okota; and when they finish with their victims, they pack
them in their respective hideouts.
Unfortunately or fortunately too, we have a case of
murder of a clearing agent sometime last month. The man according to
information available to us, was kidnapped but he tried to fight back and he
was fatally shot and he died. These suspects have also confessed to us that
they were the one who perpetrated the crime.
Manko added: “Again, let me get one thing cleared: the
victim, Odid Nweze, according to our investigation may have been going to buy
some drugs incidentally at the branch of a pharmacy where killers of Cynthia
Osokogu bought their drugs when he was kidnapped. The owner of the medicine
store may not have knowledge of such dastardly act, it was just coincidental
that some criminals were out to perpetrate their act.”
Giving details on why they killed Odidi Nweze, kingpin
of the gang, Klevin Emenike said, the death of their victim was purely in self
defence. He said: “Actually we did not mean to kill him, all we were doing was
to make money. Although the parents later paid N1.2m out of the money we demanded,
but we killed him even before they paid the money. What happened was that
when he was kidnapped at Satellite, as we were going to Okota he attempted to
disarm one of us so I grabbed the gun and fired him pointblank. He later bled
to death because we could not take him to the hospital.”