I GAVE KIDNAPPERS INFORMATION,,,

Palace
Servant A former servant at the palace of the traditional ruler of Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, where the mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was kidnapped ,that he gave the kidnappers the necessary information for the job. He said, “I’m 32 years old and
I worked in the palace from
2007 to 2012 after which I
left because the pay was too
little. A friend of mine
approached me and told me that I could make a lot of
money if I gave kidnappers
information on how to get
into the palace.The suspect,
Chiejine Onochie, said
although the kidnappers collected N13m as ransom
before the 83-year-old Prof.
Kamene Okonjo was released
last December, he was not
given any money and
therefore, was not culpable. “However, after the
operation, I did not get a
dime. It was later that I
learnt that they had collected
N13m as ransom. I felt
cheated and I left everything to God. I cannot be held for
the crime because when
police started arresting
people, I went to report at
the station voluntarily, I was
not dragged to the station.” Another suspect, Jideofor
Ogbue, aka Marvelous, who
claimed to be the leader of
the gang, said after gaining
entrance into the palace, he
and his gang members did not force Okonjo out of the
palace but she followed them
willingly after they had told
her that they were sent by
President Goodluck Jonathan. The 22-year-old said, “It was
my friend, Ifeanyi, that
informed me about the
operation. On the day of the
kidnap, we had no difficulty
because Onochie had told us that the security around the
palace was lax. Although 12
of us were involved in the
operation, only eight actually
went to the palace. “We went with three AK47
rifles and a pump-action rifle.
When the woman (Okonjo)
saw us, she asked who we
were and we told her that
President Goodluck Jonathan sent us from Abuja to arrest
her because her daughter
(Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) had
embezzled public funds. “We took her to Kwale and
her family paid us N13m as
ransom. They packaged the
money in polythene bags and
dropped it around an
expressway in Benin. My share was N2m.” Chukwuma Okoh, a suspect
who claimed to be a
graduate of Accounting and
Finance from Ambrose Alli
University, said he joined the
gang because of unemployment. He said he
was not given any money
after the operation. He said, “I’m 31 years old and
I graduated in 2007. Since
then, it has been hard to get
a decent job. It was Onochie
that brought the idea of
kidnapping Okonjo-Iweala’s mother. “However, as God is my
witness, I did not receive a
dime from the gang after the
operation.” The Commissioner of Police,
Lagos State Command, Umar
Manko, identified other
members of the gang as
Michael Ojeabulu, Endurance
Oke, Ibrahim Abubakar, Buhari Hamadora and Hassan
Oseni. Manko, while parading the
suspects, said the suspects
were arrested in different
states comprising Edo, Enugu,
Delta and Anambra. The police boss said contrary
to reports, kidnapping was
not on the rise in Lagos. He said, “Marvelous was
arrested in Port Harcourt
after he had perfected plans
to kidnap the Commissioner
of Commerce in Anambra
State. “As you can see, these
kidnappers do not operate in
Lagos State, they just come
and go. You therefore cannot
say kidnapping is on the rise
in Lagos.”