A kidnapped victim, Mrs. Maris Ibe, has successfully outwitted her captors and walked them into a police net at Asaba, the Delta State capital. The woman, after she was abducted, pretended to understand and supported her captors’ reasons for taking to the crime.
Although the kidnappers, Sunday Chukwu, 28, married with a child, and Chidokwe Efide, asked for N500,000, Ibe convinced her husband to give them N1 million. After falling for her tricks, the kidnappers escorted her to where she boarded a bus back home. Less than 45 hours after her release, police grabbed Chukwu and Efide. According to the police, Chukwu and Efide would be charged for kidnapping Ibe, a businesswoman. She was abducted on January 14, along Ibori Golf Club in Asaba.
The suspects were arrested by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team, (IRT), headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari. According to the Police, “The victim tricked the kidnappers while she was still in their captivity and eventually gained their trust. Since they trusted her, they divulged vital information to her about their activities.
“She would later hand it over to the Police after she was released. She asked her husband to increase the ransom money from the initial demand of N500,000 to N1 million. “The kidnappers got comfortable with her and stopped beating her. They also stopped blindfolding her. “After the ransom was paid, they escorted her to the bus stop, where she boarded a bus home.”
It was further gathered that the kidnappers never bargained that Ibe would play a fast one on them, since she had shown them kindness and understanding. They were, however, shocked when operatives stormed their hideout and rounded them up. Recovered from them were three locally made guns, an axe, iron cutter, 10 unexpended cartridges and the sum of N320, 000. The suspects, while being interrogated, confessed to the crime, explaining that they took to it because they lost their jobs as sand dredgers. Chukwu said: “I dredge sand for a living at a waterfront in Asaba.
I was formerly into farming; but I was arrested for buying a stolen phone in 2018. “I was taken to prison, where I spent two years. When I was released, I went into sand dredging. “It was there I met Ali and Muritala, who later became my good friends. They told me they were into armed robbery and kidnapping.”
Daily Telegraph