Female EBSU undergraduate, others arrested for kidnap in Ebonyi

The Ebonyi State Police Command has arrested a final-year female undergraduate student of the Ebonyi State University in Abakaliki (name withheld) and four other suspects, over their alleged involvement in the abduction of a businessman, Mr. Monday Oke.

Punch reported that the arrest of the undergraduate student of the department of Sociology and her gang mates came, after they abducted their victim who is the owner of a popular hotel known as “ Monabis Hotel” located at Nnorum Street in Abakaliki at about 8pm on May 25. They were arrested in Enugu State, and later transferred to Ebonyi State Police Command.

Parading the suspects, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Lovet Odah, said;

“The suspects after abducting the victim whisked him away to Azugwu town at the outskirts of the capital city Abakaliki, where he was shot at the back and pushed inside a nearby river though he survived the ordeal.

“The suspects were arrested by police operatives at Nsukka in Enugu State and later transferred to Ebonyi State Police Command”

According to the Police PRO, the kidnappers transferred N5m from the victim’s bank account, using his mobile telephone handset to their own bank account, before pushing him into the river.

Recounting how she joined the gang, the EBSU undergraduate said;

“I am final student of Ebonyi state University department of Sociology. I know this group as cultists and I met them this semester. My boyfriend was once in police cell in Enugu and it was through him that I met Okechukwu one of us”.

“They told me that my boyfriend is coming from Enugu to shoot me because I reported the person that stole my cell phone, that he asked me not to report to the police and I reported to the police. On his way coming back with two guns, they arrested him. It was on that day that Monablis was kidnapped that I was initiated into cultism, it was the group that initiated me. I belong to bagger confraternity”.

It was further gathered that the state Criminal Investigation Department had commenced full scale investigation into the incident, emphasizing that the suspects would be arraigned in court for prosecution.

“It would be recalled that Mr Monday Oke, the owner of a popular hotel known as Monabis Hotel, located in Abakaliki, was two weeks ago abducted at the premises of his hotel around 8pm by the suspects, who took him away to a river, fired gunshot at him before pushing him inside the river apparently to get him drowned in the process,” he said.