Ex Dep Gov's Family Thought We Were Joking..Kidnappers/Killers

A note left on the corpse of the killed former deputy governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike, by his kidnappers has shown that they were provoked by the family’s failure to bring the ransom they demanded for his release in cash.

Nwike’s kidnappers, according to the police in Delta State, where his body was found, left a note and cheque on him, saying: “For the fact that you thought we were joking and you refused to pay the ransom, this is the result of your action.”

 Spokesman of the Delta State police command ASP Lucky Uyabeme, who confirmed the incident, said efforts were being made by the police to bring the culprits to book.

Nwike’s body was on Thursday identified among three corpses dumped at the entrance of Alizomor village in Ika South local government area of the state.

In a telephone chat with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND yesterday, the elder brother of the deceased, Dr. Bufo Nwike, said that he was still confused as to why those who killed his brother did so. 

He said that after his younger brother was abducted, they entered into negotiation with the kidnappers and agreed to collect the sum of N5million ransom to release him.

  Nwike said that the kidnappers earlier demanded that he and the late Nwike’s wife should bring the money to them but that they refused and told them that they would mandate someone to do so, which the kidnappers accepted.

 According to him, they got an intermediary and chartered a car to take the money to the kidnappers. Both men now took the money to the abductors at Abraka, Delta State, as agreed.

The kidnappers, he said, collected the ransom and killed the former deputy governor, the man who brought the ransom and the driver of the chartered car.

He said that he learnt of the death of his brother through a call put across to his late brother’s daughter by a police officer attached to the Central Police Station, Agbor, Delta State.

Nwike said that he went to the police station and was taken to a mortuary where the corpse was deposited and transferred it to Iyienu Hospital mortuary, Ogidi, near their country home in Ogbunike.

When LEADERSHIP WEEKEND visited the slain former deputy governor’s country home yesterday at Amawa village, Ogbunike, Oyi local government area, the entire village was in deep grief.

 The elder Nwike, according to a source in the area, broke the sad news to the kinsmen on Thursday night.

The former deputy governor, 61, was said to have been abducted along Auchi-Abuja Road by kidnappers on March 19, 2012, and his corpse was later found somewhere in Agbor on Monday, April 9.