LAST year, the spate of kidnaping in the country especially in the South East assumed a frightening dimension.  Businessmen, notable actors, industrialists had bitter doses of kidnappers antics.

The police under Ogbonna Onovo rose to the challenge but that did not salvage the situation as these faceless elements in the society maintained a grip on their devilish means of livelihood.  Normally, investigations into the genesis of all the kidnap cases recorded have proven that either relations, friends or workers to the victims were brains behind their ordeal.

And so it was not surprising that one of the drivers to the popular transporter, Ifesinachi Motors was among those who plotted the kidnap of his wife, Mrs Grace Mamah.   Though the police high command have since made some arrest, even as it has spread its dragnet across the country, the Lagos state police command may have concluded the arrest of perpetrators of the act with the arrest last week of two other members including the king pin of the kidnap saga.

Messrs Chuks Okwo and Emeka Oda, the duo who claimed to have hatched the plans are presently in police custody.

The arrest which sources said was painstaking took detectives attached to the Festac Division and led by Sargent James Adedayo several days of surveillance and undercover operation.  Investigations also revealed that apart from kidnapping, the duo were among a notorious gang of armed robbers that have been terrorising Festac and environs for a long time now.

At the Festac Division under Chief Superintendent of Police CSP Usman Ndanbabo, the excitement on faces of the team was palpable.  The DPO ascribed the success of his men to the proactive and intelligence policing put in place by  the state commissioner of police Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo.  “I would not have talked to you but since you are around now, you take the story.

This arrest is a product of long time surveillance and perseverance.  We have been looking for Chuks and Emeka for a long time now.  I can say God is with us.”

Emeka Oda, a 30-year-old native of Enugu- Ezike who sells clothes at Alaba international market was arrested upon the confession of gang member Chuks Okwo.  Emeka has confessed that he actually led the Lagos gang to Enugu where the kidnap was perfected.

Though he claimed that he was not an armed robber, he said he was shortchanged in the sharing formula of the booty adding that the early arrest of gang members in Enugu was the outcome of the curse he placed on them for giving him only N15,000.00 out of the N2m collected.   He blamed his involvement in kidnapping on poverty and peer group influence.

The plot
Emeka, a Primary school dropout claimed he was a good friend of one of the drivers to Ifesinachi numerous vehicles named Ovogovo.  Some times last year they .met and exchanged addresses and phone numbers and of course, they got talking.

At one point, Ovogovo put it across to him that he should organise men from Lagos so that Mrs Grace Mamah could be kidnapped on the ground that, it  could fetch so much money.  “That was how I got Chuks connected and he promised to get me some gang.  He brought about five guys and we drove to Enugu where we met with another gang.

They said we should first kidnap one medical Doctor but while we were on the way, we changed our mind to have Madam Grace kidnapped .

They guys in Enugu are highly sophisticated and it was the gang  that took her to a hideout.  They only came to give N45, 000.00 out of the money demanded.  They said I should give N30,000.00 to Chuks while I should take N15,000.00.  I protested but they said the money they got was not up to N2m and then I cursed them.  So when they went back to kidnap the doctor, they were arrested at a checkpoint because the man raised alarm on noticing that they were at a police check point.

In fact,  I got angry and left for Ankpa in Kogi state where my parents lives.  It was there that I spent the money.  I can say that it was poverty that drove me into this mess.  My parents Mr and Mrs Bartholomew Oda are alive and manages a restaurant in Kogi.  You can go and ask them whether I have any track record of criminality”

However, if Emeka is claiming that he had never been involved in any act of criminality until Mrs. Grace Mamah kidnap, Chuks Okwo a 28-year-old Agbor, Delta state born father of one confirmed that he was an armed robber.

Though he claimed to have repented, the police say investigation revealed that he was still active in the nefarious act.   He was said to be a member of a gang that terrorised and  robbed motorists along the ever busy Lagos\Badagry road until they were arrested.  His GSM number was gotten from on of the arrested gang member and the police have been calling the line without success until last week when he eventually picked and that marked his arrest.

Confession
Oga, I have been telling the police that I was an armed robber and that I am willing to assist them to track down all the gangs operating in Lagos.  Some of them have left the state for Ogun and they now operate in Ibadan majorly.  I was involved in active robbery after I left Nodos Secondary School Ojo Barracks and could not enter the university.  My father is a retired soldier and of course, there is no money to further my education.

When I discovered that the police have arrested nearly all members of my gang, I decided to repent and give my life to God.  I got married from the money I made and confessed to my wife that I was once an armed robber but have repented.

I now live at No 1 Olarewaju street Igando while my wife who has just put to bed is with her parents.  Just last week I received a call I did not know that it was police men because for a long time I have not been using the number.

Involvement in Ifesinachi’s wife kidnap
Actually, it was Emeka who contracted me for it.  I do not know whether he knows that I was an armed robber but I used to patronise him.  Because I had some cultists in LASU, I went there and we arranged for the business.  But those I earlier contracted later changed their mind and said they were no longer interested.

But one of them, brought in the gang members that we now went to Enugu to do the deal with.  They gave me N30,000.00 but when they went for the other operation they did not tell me again, and I later heard that they were arrested.

Honestly, I no longer rob, I used to have one native Doctor called Baba Ibeji in Ogun state, but since I stopped robbing I thought there was no need to visit him again.  Our gangs have split into 10, and  if the police spares my life, I will take them round.  Those that are always robbing in Ibadan, I know them all.  I regret my action and I have since prayed that God should forgive me. I think my arrest was a product of my early sin.”