Marcus Chukwu, an indigene of Agbogugu in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State was resting in his house when he received a distress call from his wife, Mrs. Nancy Chukwu that she had been kidnapped.
His wife told him on phone that her kidnappers were demanding N200, 000 to set her free.
The distress call from Nancy sent shock waves all through Chukwu’s body and left him in a state of confusion.
He could not believe what he heard but thought it was all a joke.
Though Chukwu has been hearing about kidnapping, which has become a thriving business in many parts of the country, he did not know that his wife, Nancy, would be a victim one day.
Chukwu however managed to put himself together and alerted some relatives who advised that he should report the matter to the police rather than pay ransom to the kidnappers.
He thus, reported the matter to the police and they swung into action, using available clues.
The police investigation led to the arrest of a commercial motorcyclist operator (Okada) in Awgu who was identified as Chikwe Tochukwu, a native of Amakwe Okemiri in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State.
The Okada rider confessed during interrogation that he stage-managed the kidnap with Mrs. Chukwu, the purported victim, in a bid to swindle her husband, Marcus of N200, 000.
Based on the statement made by Chikwe, the police arrested Mrs. Nancy for stage managing her own kidnap in a bid to swindle her husband.
In a statement confirming the incident, the Enugu State Police Command spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu, narrated that the woman’s husband, Chukwu received a telephone call from his wife, claiming that she had been kidnapped by gunmen.
Amaraizu confirmed that the woman told her unsuspecting husband that her abductors were demanding a ransom of N200, 000 to free her.
According to the police spokesman, Chukwu however reported the matter to the police, which prompted the Anti-kidnapping unit of the command to swing into action.
According to him, following police investigation, the police arrested an Okada rider in Awgu who was identified as Chikwe Tochukwu, a native of Amakwe Okemiri in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State.
Amaraizu said the suspect confessed that he stage managed the kidnap with Mrs. Chukwu in a bid to rip off her husband and was lured into talking to the man that he was holding the wife hostage and that a ransom of N200, 000 should be paid for her release.
He further confessed that he was the Okada rider that normally conveyed Nancy home anytime she went to the market and that he provided an account number belonging to his friend, Chikwado for receiving the ransom.
Chikwe’s statement reads: “I am an okada rider that usually convey Nancy home anytime she is back from market. I was lured into talking to the husband of Nancy with a tone that I am a kidnapper already holding Nancy under captivity and that N200, 000 is to be paid as a ransom to the account number provided, which belonged to my friend Chikwado.
Mrs. Chukwu corroborated the statement made by the Okada rider, saying she never knew what prompted her to commit such a crime.
She also corroborated the fact that Tochukwu was a commercial motorcyclist at Agbogugu that used to carry her and that she asked her to call her husband while they were together and to demand the said amount of money from the husband under the guise that she had been kidnapped.
“I never knew what came over me, prompting such behavior. I plead for forgiveness” Nancy said.
Amaraizu disclosed that the police have commenced full scale investigations into the alleged incident.
This is the second incident of stage managed kidnap in Enugu within the past two months.
Earlier, one Samuel Ani, a casket dealer at Gariki had earlier kidnapped himself in Enugu to extort money from his brothers. He was arrested by the police.
Kidnapping, a new trend crime has been ravaging the entire South-Eastern states for some years now.
Although the crime gained prominence in the country in the South-South region where militants abducted both expatriate and indigenous oil workers for ransom, it however shifted to the South-East when the Federal Government granted amnesty to repentant Niger Delta militants.
Notable among those who have fallen victim to kidnappers in the South-East include Nollywood actors, Pete Edochie and Nkem Owo, actress and aide to Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Nkiru Sylvanus, and Dr Anayo Edemobi, the younger brother of former Information Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili.
Others are billionaire businessman, Dr Ifeanyi Okoye, the Managing Director of Juhel Pharmaceuticals limited whose mother was also a victim, former Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Prof. Ilochi Okafor and Vice Chancellor of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Prof. Cyprain Onyeji.
Even foreign nationals are not free from kidnappers in the South-East. Sometime last year, Joe Machimbarena, a Spanish doctor working with Niger Foundation Hospital Enugu was kidnapped. He was later freed when the kidnappers sealed a deal with the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria.
Except for few of the victims who were successfully freed by security operatives, many of the victims parted with staggering sums of money, often running into millions of naira to buy their freedom
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