The victim, Mrs. Hussana Adamu, was on her way to drop her children at school in April when she was abducted near the Casablanca Club, Government Reserved Area, Port Harcourt, and Rivers State.
She was released a week later after a N20 million ransom was paid.
The police were later able to arrest four of the suspects, identified as Isiaka Hamidu, 30, who hails from Adamawa State; Nwasaneo Goodluck, 34; Victor Nwidee, 29; and ThankGod Bariledun, 36, all from the Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
One of the suspects, Isiaka Hamidu, while being paraded, claimed to have lavished his one-million naira share of the ransom on prostitutes.
“I used N1 million out of it to f*** ashawo( commercial sex workers). I lodged in a hotel , invited prostitutes every night for one month. I slept with at least two ashawos every night for one month and I paid them N20,000 each. I used the remaining N300,000 to plant corn in the village”, he said.
Hamidu, who claimed this was his first time indulging in kidnapping, said he invited other members of the syndicate to abduct Mrs. Adamu to avenge an alleged ill-treatment of his younger brother by her husband, Musa Ahmad.
His words,
“One of my brothers worked for Alhaji Musa Ahmad, for 11 years. When he left to get married, all Alhaji Ahmad could pay my brother was N250,000. I was not happy with him because everyone knew he was very rich and could afford more than that. I decided to kidnap him or any member of his family. I contacted Goodluck, a long-time friend and told him about the situation. He was also angry and bought my kidnap idea.
On his part, Goodluck, a graduate of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, admitted to having collected N5.5 million from the leader of the gang after ransom was paid.
“Out of it, I took N2 million, gave Isiaka N1.3 million while Victor got N500,000.” He said.
Another suspect, ThankGod, claimed he had no idea that members of the gang were into kidnapping. He said he was contacted to use his vehicle to convey them to a place in the Bori Khana Local Government Area of the state after the kidnapping.
“Leader of the gang told me to take him somewhere in my car. On the way I picked three other friends of his . From there, he directed me to where it was later discovered to be close to the victim’s house, where they kidnapped her and directed me to their hideout . That was when I knew they were kidnappers”, he said.
The fourth suspect, Victor, stated that his role was to monitor the victim’s movement and relate same to other members of the gang who were waiting patiently for the appropriate time to strike.
Speaking further, he admitted to having collected N500,000 from Goodluck as his share of the ransom, revealing that he used the largesse to repair his Toyota Corolla car.
