THIS IS HOW KIDNAPPERS FROM HELL MURDERED A 50 YEAR OLD WOMAN.

A seven-man kidnap gang that abducted a 50-year-old widow, Mrs. Josephine Ogbuanu, and a 14-year-old boy Chinedu Ekwealor, five months ago from Iwollo community in Ezzeagu LGA of Enugu State has confessed of how they murdered the woman seven days after.

Two out of the five suspects in police net, who led a team of policemen, doctors and the victim’s relations to a thick forest located on a hill in Amauche village, Nkwere Ezunaaka Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State where the remains of their victim were exhumed from a shallow grave, said they killed the woman because she recognized them.

The suspects have, however, maintained their claim that the 14-year-old boy who hails from Aguleri, but was staying with the Ogbuanu family, is in the custody of the two fleeing members.
Those alleged to be on the run, Ikechukwu Okafor (omekaokwuru), believed to be the Chief Security Officer (Vigilante) in Awka, and Arinze Onwuani from Nkwere Ezunaaka, were said by the arrested suspects to have supplied the guns and vehicle used for the crime.
Okafor is also believed to have made the phone contacts with the victim’s family.
The three suspects, amongst them a native doctor, Bartholomew Nwafor hails from the same Iwollo community with the late Josephine Ogbuanu, also confessed that the woman was not their target.

They said they actually aimed at an 85-year-old mother of a successful businessman from the same family, Chief Sylvester Ogbuanu, but ended up with the wrong person, who happened to be the wife of the chief’s late elder brother.
In a chat with Daily Sun in pidgin English one of the suspects, Amaechi Ozor, narrated how they took the woman to the forest.
According to him, she refused to eat most of the times but when she did they fed her youghourt and bread.
He recalled that they were seven in number; Amobi Eziokwu, Godwin Anielobi, Bartholomew Nwafor, a security man from Awka, Ikechukwu Omekokwuru, another security man from Nkwere, Arinze Onwuania and Benjamin Ezievuo.

The suspect narrated how they went to the deceased’s village in Ugwuike, Iwollo and abducted their victim.
He said that the woman and the boy sat at the back seat of the vehicle and they drove all the way to Nkwere without meeting any police check point.
He said the woman had to trek by herself when they got to the track road and walked up to the hill where she was killed seven days after.

He said it was in the bush that he realized that it was the same woman that used to sell drinks to them in the community.
“She is not wicked. I know her she is our town’s woman. We dey go for him shop drink and eat. She used to play with us, and when we carry am, I no know say na the woman; because no bi the woman dem talk.
“They talk say na Chief mother we dey go carry and me I no even know the chief mother. Na Benjamin tell me first before I come know say na the woman wey I dey go him shop. She dey eat Viju milk, bread and butter.”

On Monday, with two of the suspects, the native doctor and Amechi Ozor bound together in handcuff leading the journey, he search for the remains of the victim began in Amauche village, Nkwere Ezunaaka.
With over 50 people on the march, the suspects effortlessly meandered through the bush as others struggled to tag along.

It was a tortuous trip as armed policemen from the Anambra State Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) marched closely behind the suspects who led the way while some of the deceased’s relations tried to use their cutlasses to clear the thick bushes.
For over 45 minutes the team struggled through the forest and as they were close to the top of the hills of Nkwere Ezunaaka. The people were panting while those who still had enough energy left in them, especially the young men of Iwollo, cursed the suspects on imagining how the killed woman had managed to get to that height.

Just as it was clocking an hour into the journey the two suspects in handcuffs appeared to have slowed down, and were pointing at a spot. “That’s the place,” one of them said.
The digging did not take time as they merely opened the ground and threw the body inside, facedown.
There were traces to show that the woman was blindfolded even in grave. Before long, the pieces of bones had been gathered and packed into a bag.

In no time, Head, Department of Pathology, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, Dr. Okey Okafor, with his team had done their bit.
Although they said they have to carry out further medical investigation, their preliminary confirmation was that the deceased was hit on the head.
Speaking to Daily Sun, the brother in-law to the deceased, Chief Sylvester Ogbuanu businessman from the Iwollo Community, whose mother was the actual target, narrated how his brother’s wife fell victim to a trap set for his mother:

“My mother stays in that house but that day she went for my niece at Owa, in Ezzeagu local government area. The whole family attended that occasion, in fact, it was the deceased who opted to help serve food at the event. At the end of the occasion, my mother, however, said she would not go home with us that day that we should come and pick her up the next day. I tried to persuade her but she persisted, that she didn’t feel like going, so we left her behind.

“On the other hand, the deceased was to travel to Onitsha. She had handed over the keys to her house to the daughter and her husband telling them that she would be joining them at Onitsha later in the day. For reasons known to her, she didn’t travel again and returned to the village. With her keys already in Onitsha the next option was to sleep in my mother’s house. She also persuaded the small boy, Chinedu, to join her in the house and that was where both of them slept.

“It was around 11:30 pm., according to report from my people because I didn’t sleep in the village, a vehicle pulled up in the compound and somebody went to see the people that came. Because it was Easter period and people were still awake, the invaders reportedly shouted at him and started shooting into the air. Everybody ran away, and they went to the house and took away the woman as well as the small boy who was living with my mum.

Ogbuanu disclosed that the kidnappers dropped a note; “Ozuome (his traditional title) call this number…name, AK-47.
“So I called the number and they told me that they picked two people in my compound. That all they wanted is money. That I should pay N20 million and get my people back. I told them that I don’t have money, that whoever gave them the information made was not current because he should have known that I don’t have that kind of money. That the economic meltdown was biting hard on me and that the fall of shares has almost crippled me. That he should also have told them that banks I borrowed money to buy shares are after me. They said, okay, how much can you raise? I said I could only afford N200, 000 cash, and that I was ready to part with that. They said I should make it N500, 000, but I said that was what I had. They said, okay, Chief, just add something, I said okay, I will make it N300, 000. They said give the money to the woman’s daughter; don’t come; if we see you we know you are with police.

“That was on April 19, five days after the kidnap. They said she should come to Enugu Ukwu. There they dribbled her (the victim’s daughter) all day. They would say come to this point, okay come to the other place. We are seeing you, you are with police. They continued to dribble the girl until 8 p.m they, then switched off. The next day they called her by 3: pm and said, where are you? She said she was at Onitsha. They said okay, come to Nise, at a point they said we can see you, drop the money. They called later and said they have seen the money. Go, you will hear from us, and switched off.

“After a month they called gain and said I should bring N5m. I said, but how can I trust you after you failed to keep to your early promise. They said this time they would release them. I said okay, I have the N5m, but I must hear the voice of the woman. They said, is it the woman you want or her voice? They said my friend you are not serious, and they switched off again. Before they switched off they also told me that some people were pricing the small boy N2m. I said you are looking for money, is it not?

They said, chief, we are looking for money. I said, don’t kill any of them or nothing will come from me. The last time they called was in July when they called the woman’s daughter to bring N600, 000. The caller said, I don’t want my colleagues to know, just bring the money and I will release her. They later came down to N300, 000, and finally N160, 000 was agreed, but the girl insisted on hearing her mother’s voice.”
A Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Inland Town Onitsha, simply identified as Agbo, reportedly received an anonymous phone call stating that he has information that would expose a lot of things. The caller was quoted as saying that he would give the DPO more information if he handled the investigation satisfactorily but if he failed that his life would be in danger.

The informant reportedly directed the DPO on how to reach one of the suspects who was eventually brought to the police station.
A police source said that immediately the suspect was told by the DPO that he was aware that himself and his gang kidnapped a woman and a small boy from Enugu and that they had killed the woman, the suspect expressed shock and asked Divisional Police Officer how he knew about it; offering N2m for settlement.
The DPO, Agbo, was said to have used wisdom assuring that settlement could be reached but that he must see all those involved. The suspect in search of settlement reportedly used his phone to call others apart from the two now at large whose handsets were said to have been switched off.
He was said to have called his colleagues to meet him at a joint that there was a deal. It was at the joint that they were all rounded up.