Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Tactical Team in Akwa Ibom State have arrested a youth leader, Eddy Onuka, and four others over alleged kidnapping and murder in the state.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Odiko Macdon, who disclosed this while parading the suspects at the command headquarters, Ikot Akpana-Abia, on Saturday, said the suspects confessed to using AK-47 rifles during their operations.
According to the PPRO, Onuka, who was the youth leader of the Rice Miller Association in Oron, masterminded two kidnap incidents involving one Emmanuel, whom they shot while trying to resist them and another Aniekan, whom they collected over N20m ransom from.
Macdon said, “This is a clear case of kidnapping and it is a very unfortunate one. They went to abduct one Mr Emmanuel who sells engine parts and when they got there, the man resisted the kidnap and the suspects and some other members of the gang at large shot him. Eddy Onuka here was their leader. By the grace of God, the special tactical team of the IGP moved in and effected their arrest. This was the first incident.
“In the second incident, the same Eddy led members of the same kidnapping syndicate and they succeeded this time around in abducting one Aniekan and collecting over N20m from him as ransom. He (Eddy) got N1.2m, which he used in buying another car. His vehicle was used in committing the crime. They confessed to the fact that they used AK-47 in that particular operation.
“One of them used his account in collecting the ransom to the tune of N1.2m, while the other person formed surveillance, giving them information about the deceased; when he goes out and when he comes in and this goes to underscore the need for Akwa Ibomites at every point in time to be conscious of security because some of these people are people who are close to them.
“Another suspect here collected the phone number of the wife of the deceased and called her, demanding a ransom again and threatening her and later asked her for a whopping sum of N3.2m else he was going to deal with her. That made the woman to be apprehensive and run to the police and the police went and did what they did.”
Macdon, who reiterated the commitment of the command towards ensuring the safety of lives and property of the residents, called on the people of the state to always volunteer information that could help in combating crime and criminality in the state.
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