Kidnappers release victims, abduct those who came to drop ransom

9 members of a kidnap gang have been arrested by the operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The police said the gang was responsible for most of the kidnappings that took place within GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt, Borokiri General Area and YKC axis of Woji in Rivers State.
They are: Daniel Gabriel (33), Alaso Igodo (25), Akeodi Aselemi (34), Ayibinmotei Livinus (25), Anikuroka Marshal (33), Biebele Elijah (34) Efiye Anda (34), Daniel Lessor (31) and Isaac Reuben (27).
In one of the kidnaps carried out by the gang, on August 10, 2016, a pastor, Mrs. Luis Ubah and one Mr. Chika Ezenwa were abducted. Soon after, the gang made contact with Ubah’s husband, Bishop Prince Ubah, from whom they demanded a N50m ransom for her freedom.
During the ensuing negotiation, the ransom for the release of the bishop’s wife was reduced to N2.8m and a place was agreed on for the family to drop the ransom.
But when two brothers of the bishop, Onyeka Ani and Pastor Okezie Akara, took the money to the agreed place on August 25, 2016, 15 days after Mrs. Ubah was kidnapped, the gang members decided to release her along with Ezenwa, but kidnapped the two brothers instead.
The police said they then demanded another N1m ransom from the bishop for his brothers. But N750, 000 was eventually paid for their release.
The police said investigation on the scale of the operations of the gang was still on and that they were making efforts to arrest other members of the gang who are now underground. Crdt: Punchng