Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris’ Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), have arrested two men, Patrick Koyi and Chituru Ferdinand, for allegedly kidnaping a lecturer.
The suspects also beat the victim to death after collecting N1.1 ransom.The IRT operatives, led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Abba Kyari, also arrested Sunday Ogbonda (24), who shot a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) several times and still not satisfied, drove a nail into his head to ensure he was dead.
According to police, Koyi and Ferdinand were arrested for kidnapping and killing a lecturer, Emmanuel Chinasa Obi, working with the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) in September 2016.
A police source said: “The lecturer was murdered by his kidnappers after a ransom of N1.1 million was paid in two installments to them.
The kidnappers first received a ransom of N700,000 from his family while he was alive, then they paid an additional N400,000 after he was killed.
When the kidnappers refused to release the lecturer, the family became worried. The family sent a petition to the IG on the matter. The IG instructed IRT operatives to investigate the abduction.”
The source added that Koyi was arrested in Port Harcourt in possession of Obi’s Techno phone.
Koyi confessed to the crime and led operatives to his home, where Ferdinand, whom he fingered as the mastermind of the abduction, was arrested.
Narrating his role in the abduction, Ferdinand said his friend, Akika, from Akwa Ibom State, suggested they should abduct the lecturer.
The lecturer attracted the suspects’ attention after they discovered he was building a duplex in the village, at Rumuji Town. Ferdinand said: “We talked about it.
I told Akika that we needed a gun; he invited Omega, who also called in Koyi. On the day the lecturer was kidnapped, I wasn’t around.
I went to Port Harcourt. When I came back, I learnt the man was dead. I was given N50,000.
Koyi told me that it was Omega that beat the lecturer to death, while they were in the camp.
“When they realised the man was dead, Omega and Akiki moved his corpse out of the camp, to another site for burial.
I don’t know how the police came into the matter, but it was Koyi that brought them to arrest me.”
Speaking on the arrest of Ogbonda, a suspected cult member connected with the murder of the retired DSP, police said the suspect and his gang had been terrorising Rivers State.
The police added that Ogbonda was arrested for allegedly taking part in the January 9 murder of retired Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr. Ikechi Dornata. Dornata died after a gang of cultists attacked him in his home town, in Kono-Boun area of Khanna, Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The cultists allegedly shot him several times, before driving a nail into his head. The reason the cultists targeted Dornata is yet unknown. Before his retirement, Dornata was the officer-incharge of the Rivers State Police Command Armoury. He held the position for 10 years before his retirement.
Like Koyi and Ferdinand, Ogbonda was tracked through the phone of the DSP, which he allegedly stole after killing him.
“He was tricked to a hotel in Port Harcourt, where he was eventually arrested. When the phone was searched, a photograph showing Ogbonda posing with an assault rifle was seen in the phone,” said the police
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