The Police High Command on Monday finally confirmed the arrest of the two members of a kidnapping gang who kidnapped and murdered a Benue State-based medical doctor, his son and a family friend after receiving a ransom of ₦7.5m.
Parading the suspects in Abuja along with 25 others over alleged offences ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery to unlawful possession of firearms, the Force Public Relations Officer FPRO, Frank Mba, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, said that the suspects were picked up from their hideouts by the crack detectives attached to the Inspector General of Police, Intelligence Response Team, IGP-ITR led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Abba Kyhari.
He explained that the gang members confessed to having kidnapped the trio at a location in Benue State on their way to Abuja on a fateful day and took them to an unknown destination and then sent words to the family of the victims for ransom to be paid before their release
The FPRO, however, lamented that despite being able to raise a cheque for ₦500,000 while in the custody of the suspects in addition to the ₦7m paid by the family, the suspects still killed the victims and buried their remains in a shallow grave.
The suspects in their separate interviews with newsmen confirmed the receipt of the sum of ₦7.5 m as ransom before the victims were killed but said that it was their fleeing boss that carried the act.
One the suspects confirmed of cashing the ₦500,000 cheque behind the counter in Makurdi after it was brought to him by another suspect.
Another four suspected kidnappers were paraded for kidnapping and murder of one Mrs Veronica Agboh in Benue State while another group was paraded along but the group reportedly spared the life of the victim identified as Like who married to a Benue man.
Credit: Tribune