Manhunt on for others, including police officer

By Esther Onyegbula

DETECTIVES attached to the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, FEDSARS, Adeniji-Adele, Lagos, recently, arrested two members of a notorious six-man armed robbery and kidnap gang. Four members of the gang are said to be at large while detectives have spread their dragnets to round them up.

The Suspect

The arrested suspects were identified as Andrew Ekwenuya,30 and Samuel Idoko,35, while the fleeing members of the gang are: Focus, Awilo, Igwebuike and a security operative identified as Kenneth Godwin.

Reports said they were arrested after one Francis Onwuegbuzu, a Customs officer who had earlier on been kidnapped by the suspects and others at large, wrote a petition against his driver, one Okonkwo Ifeanyi and others. The case was then referred to the anti-robbery squad for thorough investigation.

Police sources said the Customs officer and his personal driver,Okonkwo Ifeanyi, were kidnapped while on Christmas holidays at his home town, Ogwashi-Ukwu, in Delta State by six unknown gunmen. They were held captive till December 31, 2013, when his family and friends paid N5m ransom. After the kidnap suspects were paid the the ransom, they released the victims but made away with his Toyota 4-Runner SUV bearing Lagos state license plate number LSR-11-CE valued at N7 million and also his Nokia mobile telephone.

It was gathered that investigations were carried out by police officers in Ogwashi-Ukwu police station as well as the state CID, Asaba who handled the matter at the preliminary stages till the victim regained freedom and sent a petition to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Criminal Investigations Department, Force Headquarters in Abuja, praying that the matter be transferred to Federal SARS for effective handling of the investigation.

Acting on directives to take up the investigation, a team of FEDSARS detectives led by ASP Emmanuel Onovough, swung into action, focusing attention on intelligence gathering while also monitoring the time any user would activate the victim’s mobile telephone hardware.

Tracking and eventual arrest
The latter paid off as the hardware soon popped up, leading to the tracking and eventual arrest of one Andrew Ekenuya at Kwara bus-top, Ikotun-Igando Lagos.

Investigations revealed that the suspect admitted partial involvement in the kidnap but disclosed that he was aware that one Focus, Awilo, Igwebuike and a security operative identified as Kenneth Godwin, abducted the victims. Detectives reportedly resorted to electronic scanning of the social media network, Facebook, and were able to discover that Kenneth Godwin posed in different photographs in police uniform, slinging an AK-47 rifle including his conspicuous postures at the rear of the victim’s Toyota 4-Runner in sports attire.

Crime Alert gathered that his wife, Ebere Mercy Godwin, who was consequently invited for questioning to properly identify her husband and his associates, confirmed that her husband is a policeman serving at Special Investigations Bureau, SIB,in Kogi State Command, having been recently transferred from FIB Annex, Lagos and that he arrived home sometime before her arrest with a Toyota 4-Runner which matched the description of the victim’s car. She further led detectives to arrest one Samuel Idoko and Musa and they confirmed coming in contact with Kenneth Godwin and the said vehicle.

The confession of the duo, Samuel Idoko and Musa Itodo, led to the arrest of Red Lawani, an NNPC staff at Abuja from whom the detectives recovered the victim’s stolen Toyota 4-Runner SUV.

The Stolen SUV

Investigations also revealed that Corporal Kenneth Godwin, F/No 412269 CPL,was transferred to SIB Kogi on October 2, 2013 via a daily order. However,when contacted, the Police in Kogi said they do not have trace of the subject on the command’s nominal roll.

Items recovered from the suspects includes  a Toyota 4-Runner SUV with registration number Lagos Eky-865-CJ, one unregistered Golf 3 car, one Honda generator set, one LG table fridge, one LG flat screen TV, one old model 16 inches LG TV, one LG disc player and two speakers and one rechargeable fluorescent light.

How the victims were kidnapped
Crime Alert gathered that when Mr. Francis Onwuegbuzu traveled with his driver, Okonkwo Ifeanyi, to celebrate Yuletide with his family, he did not know that a close relation, Andrew Ekwenuya, was monitoring him.

The relation thereafter, tipped his gang members of the victim’s social status.  On December 27, 2013, while visiting his friends and relatives in his community, he was waylaid and kidnapped along with his driver by a group of six heavily armed men who fired sporadically to ward off any challenges and drove away together with the 4-Runner SUV to an unknown hideout.

On December 29, the kidnappers established contact with the victim’s family, demanding a ransom of N70 million which was later reduced to N10 million. Finally, they ended up getting N5 million from the victims’ relatives. The victims were later freed by the kidnappers on 31st December after receiving the ransom but disappeared with his Toyota 4-Runner SUV and his sophisticated Nokia GSM mobile telephone handset.

How the suspects were apprehended
When detectives pried on the telephone hardware of the victims, it was activated, paving way for effective scientific tracking that led to the arrest of Andrew Ekwenuya . His arrest revealed light at the end of the tunnel as he disclosed names of the kidnapers which include Focus, Awilo, Igwebuike and Kenneth Godwin.

When Kenneth Godwin, the non-commissioned officer (NCO) got wind of his wife’s arrest, he called her on telephone, while she was in Police custody and informed her to use Police to lure one Samuel Idoko, to await delivery of another vehicle, a Toyota Highlander SUV from a fellow who would be accompanying his wife to his location. Unknown to Samuel Idoko that it was a setup, he came to the agreed destination and was immediately arrested.

Suspect’s accounts
According to one of the suspects, Andrew Ekwenuya, a driver and a native of Ogwashi-Ukwu, “I was in Lagos when I was informed that the victim, Francis Onwuegbuzu, was kidnapped. On December 28, 2013, at about 4am, I received a call from one Focus, inviting me to a club at Ikotun where I met him with a Toyota 4-Runner SUV. I accompanied Focus to hand over the SUV to Kenneth Godwin at Iyana Ipaja roundabout for safe keeping. It was Focus, Awilo and Igwebuike that kidnapped the victims.

Samuel Idoko: Samuel Idoko, 25, from Ogbadibo revealed that during the Yuletide period in December 2013, he met Kenneth Godwin who introduced himself as a policeman.
“Early in January, Kenneth called me on phone that he has a Toyota 4-Runner SUV brought by his friend who came from overseas but wanted to dispose of it to raise money to enable him secure a piece of land he bought in Lagos State before traveling back overseas.

Security operative
Since I knew Godwin Kenneth as a security operative, I never bothered to confirm the authentic source of the vehicle. To be able to sell the SUV, I detached the original number plate and falsified Customs and Excise documents and altered same to the licensing authority after which I obtained a fresh  Lagos number,  Eky-865-CJ. I contacted Ted Lawani who paid N2.7 million after being assured of the genuineness of the vehicle.

It was learnt that, unknown to Ted Lawani that the vehicle was stolen, he initially transferred N2 million to Godwin Kenneth’s Diamond Bank account and subsequently transferred N700, 000 into Godwin Kenneth’s Fidelity Bank Plc, Makurdi branch, totaling N2.7 million.

Later, Samuel Idoko delivered the vehicle through one of his relatives from where he took delivery at Abuja. He claimed he did not suspect the car to be stolen property.
Meanwhile, Police sources said effots are being made to round up all the fleeing suspects.

Efforts made to reach the Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of the squad, Chris Ezike, failed as he was said to have traveled to Abuja on official assignment.