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.
0 Comments