Police trick kidnappers, arrest 8 in Enugu

The Police in Lagos, weekend, made a breakthrough by arresting eight suspected kidnappers of wife of transport
magnate, Igwe James Mamah, Chairman of Ifesinachi Group of Companies, in Enugu State.

The wife of the transporter, Mrs. Grace Mamah, was abducted at the University town of Nsukka on Saturday, August
18, 2009 by two young men while she was attending lectures at the Nsukka campus of the College of Education near
the old Army Barracks and driven in her Honda CR- V Jeep to an unknown place where she was held for four days.

She was set free after the family paid N5 million ransom to the kidnappers. Vanguard gathered that after the 60-year-old woman was released, the Inspector- General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, gave the police in Lagos matching orders to commence investigations into cases of incessant kidnapping in the South-East and its environs with a view to permanently arresting the ugly situation.

Based on the directive, the Lagos Commissioner of Police, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo, reportedly gave a crack team of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB), stern order to fish out perpetrators of kidnappings in the area. Sources said the police team led by Chief Superintendent of Police, Richard Ejeh and Superintendent of Police, Gabriel Amadi quickly swung into action by jetting down to Enugu where they commenced investigations with their counterparts in Enugu.

Vanguard further learnt that police detectives obtained particulars of the kidnappers through the GSM phone they used in calling the woman’s family to demand ransom and working with the service providers, they got a clue that members of the gang were operating within Enugu State.

However, a lady working with the police detectives was said to have called the gang from Lagos and informed them of her desire to be kidnapped to enable them collect millions of naira from her wealthy parents in Lagos for them to share, a deal that the kidnappers welcomed with open hands and continued to dialogue with her with a view to perfecting it.

After days of discussion, the lady boarded a flight from Lagos to Enugu on Saturday afternoon so that she could be “kidnapped” by the gang as earlier agreed, but unknown to the hoodlums, plain-clothe policemen who travelled with the lady from Lagos and some detectives in Enugu had laid ambush for them at the airport.

A member of the gang who came to the airport to pick the lady was immediately apprehended but following his confessional statement regarding the whereabouts of his colleagues, seven others were arrested and are now being detained in Enugu.

It was gathered that the suspects have seen made confessions on how they shared the money realised from the transport magnate and other kidnap cases they carried out in the past. Police sources intimated Vanguard that they would soon be flown to Lagos.

The Lagos and Enugu states Police Public Relations Officers could not be reached for comments at the weekend but a senior police officer at the Enugu command confirmed the arrest of the eight persons, but declined further comments.