Man who conspired to kidnap wife of younger brother’s boss arrested
Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) has arrested a man, Isiaka Hamidu, for conspiring with kidnappers to abduct his younger brother’s boss’s wife and collecting N20 million ransom.
The suspects were identified as Isiaka Hamidu (30), from Adamawa State, Nwasaneo Goodluck (34), from Khana Local Government Area, Victor Nwidee (29), and ThankGod Bariledun (36), the taxi driver of the kidnappers also from Khana community of Rivers State.
Newtelegraph. ng reports that Hamidu invited the other kidnappers to help him abduct one Hussena Adamu, because her husband, Alhaji Musa Ahmad settled his younger brother with just N250,000 after he served him for eleven years.
The victim’s husband is a native of Maiduguri in Borno State, while the wife hails from Adamawa State, she was said to have been kidnapped near Casablanca Club, GRA, in Port Harcourt on March 31, 2022, at gunpoint.
Hamidu admitted to the crime and told detectives that he abducted the woman because her husband settled his brother with the petty sum of N250,000 after 11 years of diligent service to him.
Speaking further, the suspect said he initiated the plan after his brother lamented his horrible experience with the victim’s husband, so he set a trap for the boss’s wife.
“I did it because of the stinginess of her husband, we collected N20 million ransom in order to punish him,” he said.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Olatunji Disu, said the suspects were arrested after a team of police operatives led by the IRT Commander while acting on the information about the kidnapped woman, launched a manhunt and captured four out of the six suspected kidnappers who abducted the woman.
Disu said the kidnappers have kept the woman in their den at Bori Khana community for seven days before she was released after her husband paid the N20 million ransom they demanded.
Police sources hinted that one minibus, a Toyota Avensis tinted glass car, and one Toyota Corolla car was recovered as exhibits from all the arrested suspects.
It was revealed that the gang leader is also a leader of a cult group called Dem-Bam in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State that has killed and maimed people in the area and has been on the wanted list of security agencies in the state.
Narrating how the crime was executed, Hamidu said he used to be a parrot and peacock dealer in Port Harcourt before the incident.
According to him, his younger brother told him how his boss gave him a small money (N250,000) to set up his own business after he told him about his marriage plans this year.
“That was what prompted me to invite other criminal members after I traced and got all the information about the woman and her husband. After the N250,000 was given to my younger brother, I was not happy with the woman’s husband, so we decided that kidnapping him or any of his family members will be a good way to revenge the maltreatment he meted out to my sibling”.
“After getting the details about the woman, I contacted my longtime friend Goodluck and told him what happened to my younger brother and we both agreed to plan and carry out the kidnapping of the woman with other members of the gang”.
“Through Goodluck, we contacted Ojukwu who is at large to also reach out to Nwidee, Bariledun, and two others who are also at large, Ojukwu mobilised and coordinated the kidnapping operation of the woman,” Hamidu said.
Revealing how they shared the ransom, Hamidu said that after the operation, N1.3 million was given to Ojukwu as his share of the ransom paid by the victim’s husband.
On his part, Goodluck who claimed to be a Higher National Diploma (HND) holder from the Abia State Polytechnic admitted that the key suspect Hamidu contacted him about the kidnapping and they called the gang leader, Ojukwu, who later invited other gang members to carry out the operation.
He said after the successful abduction of the woman and the collection of N20 million ransom, Ojukwu was paid N5.5 million as his own share of the ransom with the three other gang members who are still at large.
Goodluck said he collected N2 million and gave Bariledun the same amount, Nwidee got N500,000.00. While Hamidu who brought the deal got the largest share of the ransom.
He said the gang members shared the money satisfactorily amongst themselves without any disagreement or rancour.
In his testimony, Bariledun, the driver said he initially didn’t know it was a kidnapping deal he was called for because they told him they wanted to use his vehicle to take a woman somewhere and had no idea it was to the kidnapper’s den at Bori Khana community, it was when they got there that he knew that the woman was a kidnap victim.
“It was my taxi cab, a Toyota Avensis they used to stop the woman’s vehicle when she was taking her children to school, she was then forced into my car and I was asked to drive off with the criminals in my car to Bori Khana community, the kidnapper’s hideout,” he said.
Narrating further, Bariledun said, “The leader of the gang, Ojukwu brought three other men on our way to the victim’s house, it was the three men who jumped out of my taxi to stop the woman’s car before we whisked her away to their hideout, after spending seven days in the kidnapper’s den, her husband paid N20 million ransom and I also collected my charges.”
Nwidee who is the fourth suspect said his own role was to monitor the movement of the woman and give updates to the gang members before she was abducted.
“After the abduction of the woman, I was given N500,000 by Goodluck as my share of the ransom paid. I used the money to buy a Toyota Corolla car which had been tracked and taken into custody by the police, I lost everything I worked for, crime doesn’t pay,” he said.
Follow the Neptune Prime channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va74ZvU2v1IqKByXoX3d
Do you have breaking news, interview request, opinion, suggestion, or want your event covered? Email us at neptuneprime2233@gmail.com
