A suspect, simply identified as Nelson, who was arrested in connection
with the kidnap in an interview shed light on the execution of the
operation.
“On July 16, 2014, I was called by a friend, named Ebi, while in Warri.
He said he had a contract in his local government since he knew me as a
boat driver. On July 27, I came over and we proceeded to Yenagoa and
from there to Nembe. Inside the boat, I saw two big bags and I asked him
the content; he said it was his working tools. While on the waterways,
he was driving the boat but suddenly stopped and told me he was using me
for a mission and that I should cooperate or else he would shoot me. I
told him to drop me and he said there was no room for that and
threatened to kill me.
“When we got to a certain community, he left a gunman with me while they
went into the area. Some minutes later, I heard shouts and the gunman
said I should start the boat’s engine. Then they brought in an old man
into the boat and we zoomed off to an unknown location. We stayed there
for a while and the following evening we left to another community where
he bought food and returned to the place. It was then that Ebi seized
my phone and told me to cooperate with him until we finished the job and
I did.”
Nelson, who explained that the victim was sitting down when his health
suddenly deteriorated, added that Ebi, the ring leader, was doing all
the negotiation.
According to him, the victim’s death marked a turning point in the
whole kidnap incident, as Ebi decided to go on to collect the ransom.
“After about 10 days there, he told me to follow him, as he wanted
to make a call. He asked me if I could arrange someone, who could get
him a Thuraya phone. I told him I knew someone at Robinson plaza, Warri,
who could get him one. When I called, we arranged for him to get the
Thuraya but he, Ebi, decided to arrange for another one. He was using my
phone to make contacts and after a while, we relocated from where we
were to a place opposite Kula community. We were there for two days and
he was making a series of phone calls.
“One day, he told the
old man that his family had refused to speak with him and had abandoned
him. The man was confused but he was still able to talk. However,
between August 14 and 15, he was sitting down after eating; then we
heard shouts that the man was dying. Immediately we rushed there, the
man was already dead.
“We told Ebi to take the corpse back to the family but he said he was
afraid to do that. He said he would think of what to do. We told him to
allow us go since the man was dead. In the evening, he told us that he
had been able to negotiate something with the family and that we should
wait. I told him that was not what we planned, as he told me he was
taking me to drive people for a job and not this. He threatened he would
kill any one who tried to leave.”
Continuing the narration Nelson said: “The next day, he said since he
could not return the corpse to the family, he would bury it. There was
an argument but he insisted that he would bury the corpse at a place in
Kula. The next day he said he wanted to go and collect the money so as
to flee the country. That very day, he got a boat and all of us drove to
a location I don’t know. He left us and collected the money and in the
evening between 7 and 8pm, he took us to another unknown place where he
gave me N200, 000 and later N50, 000. He told me to go home, assuring he
would handle the remaining issue. The following day, he dropped me in
Port Harcourt from where I returned to Warri. I had wanted to contact my
lawyer to report the incident but I was not able to do so before I was
arrested.”
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State Command, Ahmed Bello,
who confirmed the death of Chief Adigo and the arrest of the suspect,
disclosed that the grave was discovered on Thursday, August 28, 2014.
“On the August 28, 2014, acting on a tip-off, a combined team of
security agencies in Bayelsa State and officers of the Bayelsa Ministry
of Health were led to a border town between Rivers and Bayelsa state
near Kula village, where a shallow grave was discovered. “The body of
the late Chief Adigo Eseni, aged 87 years, who was earlier kidnapped on
July 28, 2014, by unknown gun men, was exhumed from the shallow grave
under the supervision of a senior pathologist from the Bayelsa State
Ministry of Health. The corpse was removed and deposited at the Federal
Medical Centre Mortuary, Yenagoa, for autopsy.”
Security operatives disclosed that six people participated in the kidnap operation but five of them are now at large.
It was learnt that the family is cooperating with security operatives,
who have launched a manhunt for the negotiator, who allegedly collected
the N5 million ransom and paid the kidnappers.
Culled from the Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment