The string of events
that led to the death of 35yrs old Christie Agbulu, a lecturer in the
Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi,
Benue
State, sounded like one made for a scary movie.
But for over one
month, the nightmare was real for her family, who waited endlessly with hope
that she would be released safely after she was kidnapped in the evening of
November 26, 2016.
Information from
police investigators offered a look into the investigation that led the police
to the kidnappers’ ring leader.
After the suspect
was arrested, he subsequently gave the location of where the beautiful lady's
lifeless body was found.
That day, Christie
Agbulu had just alighted from a bus around 7pm,when an okada rider accosted
her, asking where she was going.
She then told him
the address that a friend, Levi Shemba, whom she was visiting had given her,
indicating that she did not know the place.
The okada rider, who
turned out to be one of the members of the syndicate who targeted people who
are new to the city, told her to jump on.
“Unknown to her, the
okada rider took her to a different location. It was through our investigation
that we learnt that the syndicate had been operating as okada riders for a
while,” the Public Relations Officer, Kogi State Police Command, Mr. Ovye Williams,
said.
The okada rider was
said to have taken Agbulu to a forest and demanded a ransom of N150,000,
directing the family to pay it in the victim’s bank account. The family then
paid N100,000 which her captors later withdrew with her ATM card.
“When we got a
report of the kidnap, we entered the bush. The Commissioner of Police, Mr.
Abdullahi Chafe, mobilised different units to comb the area. While we were
doing that, we were tracking the phone number they were using to communicate
with the family.”
For about a month
after Agbulu’s kidnap, the police investigation got no breakthrough as the
kidnappers changed location frequently in the forest to avoid being pinpointed.
Each time the police
identified a location through tracking, the kidnappers would have moved.
It was learnt by
Punch that the police eventually got a break in the case. When they tracked
Agbulu’s own line, which the kingpin of the syndicate had converted to personal
use.
“We tracked the line
and eventually located the suspect using it. When he was arrested by the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad and identified as the gang leader, he then took our
men to two other members of the gang.
The suspects are
Nuhu Musa (29), Caleb Moses (28) and Sanusi Jibrin (33).
“The suspects
confirmed that they belonged to the syndicate that kidnapped people in Lokoja.
Anytime a stranger came to the town and did not know the location, they
pretended to be okada riders looking for passengers.
“They then led the
SARS operatives to where the body of the lecturer was found in a shallow grave
along the Lokoja-Abuja Expressway. When the police got there, they realised it
had decomposed.
During
investigations, the suspects reportedly confessed to have kidnapped a second
victim, Grace Ene Onaivi, an Edo State indigene and 300 Level student of the
Benue State University.
Onaivi was declared
missing on December 23, 2016 by her family members after they could not reach
her.
The suspects told
the police that they had kidnapped Onaivi exactly the same way Agbulu was
abducted with a commercial motorcycle. They also dumped Onaivi’s body in the
area where Agbulu’s body was found few days prior.
It is still unclear
in what way the victims were killed.
Williams told our
correspondent that an autopsy would be conducted on the bodies to determine the
cause of death.
The incidents have
prompted the police in Kogi State to start a frantic effort to screen okada
riders in the state.
The police
spokesperson said the command was liaising with the state government to make a
customised hat for all the okada riders in the state.
Williams said, “We
are also working on a centralised data through which we can trace any of the
commercial motorcyclists in the state at any point in time.
“We are also
embarking on an awareness campaign that anyone expecting a first-time visitor
from outside the state, should ensure the visitor remains in the motor park and
pick them there instead.
“We are also
informing the people that they should not ever board an okada that has no plate
number while okada riders who have not registered should do so immediately. In
case of any incident, we would know how to trace them.”
He said
investigation was still ongoing on the case as the suspects were cooperating.
Meanwhile, the
Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities at FUAM, where Agbulu
worked, Mr. Benigy Anjembe, has described the death of Agbulu as a big loss to
the university community as a whole.
“One can only
imagine the efforts her family put into training her up to the level where she
was on the verge of obtaining her Ph.D.
“Imagine the agony
she would have gone through in the hands of her captors before she was killed.”
Anjembe, who spoke
with Punch on telephone, said that the only way Agbulu could be honoured was to
prosecute the arrested suspects without delay so that justice could be
achieved.
He described her as
a highly intelligent woman and an epitome of humility, who had no iota of
violence in her.
What a sad way to
end. May her soul rest in peace!
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