Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Led by DCP Abba Kyari have smashed the gang behind the abduction of the Chief Accountant of Plantgeria Limited, an oil servicing firm, operating in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The victim, Dr SMC Maduagwu, was kidnapped and a ransom of N20million paid for his release.
Four among the alleged kidnappers have been arrested. The suspects, including a native doctor, have been identified as Tony Rafael, Nnaji Romanus, Nwobodo Uche and Uchechukwu Ibekwe.
According to police sources, the suspects were grabbed in their hideouts in Rivers and Imo states.
The police said that the suspects have admitted to abducting the Accountant and collecting N20million ransom.
It was gathered that the leader of the gang, Christian Kenjika alias School Boy, was beheaded by a rival cult group before the operatives could arrest him.
It was further learnt that Kenjika had four AK47 rifles and two Pump Action short guns in his armoury before he was killed.
The source further said: “School Boy carried out several kidnappings within Rivers State and was declared wanted by the Rivers State Government.
The government placed a bounty of N20million on him in 2018.
He met his waterloo when one of his gang members, Uche, who wanted to take over leadership of the gang, gave out his location to members of De-Gbam confraternity.
De-Gbam confraternity had been hunting for him for long.
The hunt for School Boy and his gang members started after the IGP instructed the IRT Unit, headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, to ensure the rescue of Maduagwu.
The gang was alleged to have specialized in robbery, cultism and other heinous crimes.
Kyari and some members of the unit launched an investigation and by March got information on the activities of the gang of kidnappers.
The Accountant was abducted in February 2018.
Part of what the operatives discovered was that a driver working at Plantgeria Limited, gave information about Maduagwu to members of the gang.
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This information aided the gang in the abduction of the victim.
The driver, Ibekwe, when arrested, made confessional statement that assisted IRT operatives in the arrest of other members of the gang, including the one who orchestrated the murder of School Boy.
According to Ibekwe, 37, he planned the abduction of Maduagwu because he refused to grant him a salary advance.
He explained that when he requested for the salary advance, Maduagwu shouted at him. Ibekwe, who is married with three children, said that shouting embarrassed and angered, thus he plotted how to get even with his boss.
He said: “I am a driver to an oil services company known as Plantgeria in Rivers State. I was employed in the 2007 and transferred to Shell Oil to work as a driver in 2017.
I was later recalled and posted to the head office of our company to work as a driver to an expatriate. But in 2018, I applied for a salary advance, a sort of a loan from our company.
I met the Chief Accountant of our company to perfect the loan, he shouted at me and sent me out of his office.
“I left his office, angry. I thought of how to deal with him. Unfortunately, I got a call from a friend of mine, Stanley, who is also from my community. Stanley was into armed robbery and kidnapping.
I narrated what happened between the Chief Accountant and I to him and he suggested that we should kidnap him or any of the expatriates.
I preferred that we should kidnap the accountant, so I gave Stanley the necessary information.
On the day he was to be kidnapped, Stanley called me and I also spoke with Uche. They asked me to inform them when the man would be leaving his office. I did and the next day, I got news from my office that the man had been kidnapped.
I was later given the sum of N800,000 after ransom was paid. I didn’t know the exact amount that was paid as ransom.
I bought a Nissan Primera with my share of the money.
“One year after the incident, I was at home with my wife, when policemen entered and arrested me.
I’ve told the police all I know about the kidnapping. I a
