An Enugu-based politician, victim, Tochukwu Okeke, has narrated how a suspected kidnapper, Collins Ezenwa,AKA E-Money, kidnapped him and collected $2 million as ransom.
Okeke told Vanguard that E-Money and his gang abducted him at Nsukka area of Enugu State and kept him for six days before the ransom of $2 million (N700million), was paid for his released.
According to him, while in captivity, he informed his lawyers to sell one of his landed property in Enugu and he depleted his domiciliary account, which he said had funds he wanted to use in paying his children’s tuition fees in Canada.
Okeke said “That was not the first time I was kidnapped. I was kidnapped in 2013 in my house and the kidnappers took only N6 million from me and I was released. They didn’t torture or maltreat me the way E-Money and his boys did.
“However, after I was released, I had meetings with security operatives in Enugu State and I was advised to keep on communicating with kidnappers since they wanted their balance. I followed the advice and at the end of the day all the kidnappers were arrested and their rifles recovered.
“When E-Money kidnapped me, we were able to raise the $2 million after selling my property and depleting my bank accounts. After I regained freedom, I reached out to the Police operatives, who arrested Evans in Lagos. I was in Lagos, made my case to them and they started investigating the case.
“For six months they trailed E-Money with the phone number which was used for the negotiation and I also discovered that I wasn’t the only victim that was hunting for him, because he was showing up in various locations at different times.
“Luckily news came in from Imo State that he had been killed by the Police and I went and identified his corpse.”
Okeke explained further that he later learned that E-Money had several property in Enugu State, which he acquired after he was kidnapped.
Meanwhile, the widow of the late kidnap kingpin had accused operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, of converting her late husband’s property and cash to their personal use.
she also accused the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, the head of the unit, DCP Abbah Kyari, of illegally depleting late Ezenwa’s assets.
But reacting Commander, IRT, DCP Abba Kyari, described the allegation as unverified lies.
Kyari said: “We have nothing to do with a private account carrying names of people from the South -East, flaunted by the kidnapper’s wife. In this BVN era, bank accounts can easily be investigated and cash movements and owners can easily be traced and arrested for questioning.
“They are all lies from the wife of a kidnap kingpin, who we refused to negotiate with. The family of the kidnapper begged to settle with us but we refused and they vowed to spend money to spoil our names, as all their efforts to transfer the case out of our office failed.
On the case in court relating to E-Money‘s widow’s allegation, Okeke said: “Since the matter was in court and I have an established case that my money was used by E-Money to buy that property, I approached the tenants in the seized building and told them that they would have to start paying rent.
“They didn’t pay any rent for one year after E-Money was killed. They took advantage of the legal battle between E-Money’s family and the Police to live in the house for free.”
