Police Nab 2 Kidnap Suspects Waiting For More From Victim After Collecting N5.1m

A man arrested for alleged kidnapping has claimed he never knew his exploits amounted to kidnapping until he was arrested and taken to police custody in Benin City, Edo State.
The suspect, Joel Emazor, 31, was paraded on Tuesday, with one Philip Roberts, 30 for allegedly kidnapping one Albert Igbinomwanhia, 31 in Benin City.
Police said the duo connived with one Ossai and Eguavoen now on the run, to kidnap the victim and held him in their hideout for five days before he was released after N5.1 million was paid as ransom by his parent.
Said he: “We had a business deal with Albert but when I asked him for my money, Albert told me the people involved in the business have not given him his money.
“So, I took him to the police station and when the issue was not going well, we left there and took Albert along to the burrow pit and when it was night, we left for our hotel room and held him for five days and collected N5.1million ransom from his parent before we were arrested.
He said he was not aware that holding Albert captive was an offence.
“I have learnt my lesson because I didn’t really know that holding him for days is an offence. It was when we got to the station that they read the law to me and I knew it was an offence”, Joel narrated.
The public relations officer, Edo State Police Command SP Chidi Nwabuzor while parading the suspects, said they were arrested on March 30 by the command’s intelligence Rapid Response Squad acting on credible intelligence.
SP Nwabuzor added that on March 6, the suspect and two others, namely, Ossai and Eguavoen whose surnames are not given, kidnapped one Albert Igbinomwanhia from Igbinedion Avenue, G.R.A, Benin City and took him to Agbor Road Bye-Pass axis near Okhuahe River in a Lexus Jeep RX 330 with registration number RBC 18 DC where they held him hostage inside a burrow pit for five days.
“Subsequently, the kidnappers demanded N14 million ransom from his family members and the victim was released to his family after collecting the sum of N5.1million,” SP Nwabuzor stated.
According to him, after collecting the ransom, the suspects continued to call the victim and his parent insisting that the N14 million must be completed otherwise they would kidnap the victim again, a threat that caused the parent to petition the commissioner of Police.
“The suspects were arrested from their hideout and they have made statements and confessed to the crime. Efforts are ongoing to track the other fleeing members of the gang”, the PPRO noted.