The controversy trailing the recovery of property belonging to notorious kidnapper, late Collins Ezenwa, alias E-Money, by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, took a twist yesterday, as one of his victims, narrated how $2 million was collected from him.
The victim, Tochukwu Okeke, an Enugu-based politician, said he was kidnapped by E-Money and his gang and the sum of $2 million was collected as ransom before he was released. Okeke told Vanguard in an interview that E-Money and members of his gang accosted him at Nsukka area of Enugu State, on his way from Abuja, blindfolded and took him into a forest, where he was kept for six days before the ransom of $2 million (N700million), was paid for his released.
He told Vanguard that he instructed his lawyers, while in captivity, to sell of one of his landed property in Enugu and he depleted his domiciliary account, which he said had funds he wanted to use in paying his children’s tuition fees in Canada. Okeke further said he was beaten by E-Money and his boys, who were given orders to kill him on the fifth night if his relatives failed to pay the ransom. His words: “That was not the first time I was kidnapped.
I was kidnapped in 2013 in my house and the kidnappers took only N6 million from me and I was released. They didn’t torture or maltreat me the way E-Money and his boys did. “However, after I was released, I had meetings with security operatives in Enugu State and I was advised to keep on communicating with kidnappers since they wanted their balance. I followed the advice and at the end of the day all the kidnappers were arrested and their rifles recovered.
“When E-Money kidnapped me, we were able to raise the $2 million after selling my property and depleting my bank accounts. After I regained freedom, I reached out to the Police operatives, who arrested Evans in Lagos. I was in Lagos, made my case to them and they started investigating the case. “For six months they trailed E-Money with the phone number which was used for the negotiation and I also discovered that I wasn’t the only victim that was hunting for him, because he was showing up in various locations at different times. “Luckily news came in from Imo State that he had been killed by the Police and I went and identified his corpse.”
Okeke explained further that he later learned that E-Money had several property in Enugu State, which he acquired after he was kidnapped. On the case in court relating to E-Money‘s widow’s allegation, he said: “Since the matter was in court and I have an established case that my money was used by E-Money to buy that property, I approached the tenants in the seized building and told them that they would have to start paying rent.
“They didn’t pay any rent for one year after E-Money was killed. They took advantage of the legal battle between E-Money’s family and the Police to live in the house for free.”
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/01/i-paid-2m-ransom-to-e-money-in-nsukka-kidnap-victim/
