20-year-old kidnaps uncle for N50,000

A 20-year-old, Collins Chime, who organised the kidnap of his 92-year-old Uncle Edwin Chime Obinagu in Udi, Enugu, has been arrested, alongside two others, by the state’s police command.

IGP Solomon Arase’s Special Intelligence Response Team dispatched came and nabbed the kidnappers after the old man was freed on paying N500, 000 in ransom.

Obinagwu, based in Liverpool, the UK, was snatched April 2 by four armed men, and ferried away in an Audi 80 they stole in Delta. They later contacted the victim’s wife for negotiation.

The four-man gang had initially asked Obinagu’s wife to pay N200 million in ransom. In the course of negotiation, the amount was ground down to half a million naira.

Apart from Collins, others arrested include the lynchpin and negotiator Chinonso Onyebuchi, 28,  pick-up man Chukwudi Azemenei, 22, and one Ifeanyi, an ex-con, who is on the fly now.

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Collins told reporters he gave his uncle away because the old man refused to drop bales of naira in the lap of his nephew who ran to him for assistance.

As of the time of their arrest, Collins said he’d spent N5000 of the N50, 000 he got while Chinoso had blown up his N112,000 on wine and women.

However, bout N170,000 was recovered.

The Enugu CP   Ekechukwu Nwodibo said the arrest of the suspects was made possible through a careful operation after a tip-off by some citizens.