Posted by By Emma Una/ Calabar on
Four University of Calabar undergraduates have been arrested by police detectives in Calabar, for taking hostage Miss Etemfawa Mbang Oju, daughter of the Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture.
Four University of Calabar undergraduates have been arrested by police detectives in Calabar, for taking hostage Miss Etemfawa Mbang Oju, daughter of the Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture.
The spokesman of the Cross River Police Command, ASP Thomas Okpene, said the undergraduates 'were highly scientific in their method of operation. So we had to deploy computers, digital cameras and other scientific methods to apprehend them.'
He identified the four suspects as Usoro Usoro Asang, aged (22), a 300 level Physics Student; Etim Francis Bassey (22), Department of Genetics and Biotech; Emmanuel Essien Ukpong (23), Department of Oceanography and Sunday Udoh Uwah, a 500 level student of the Cross River State University of Science and Technology (CRUTECH), Calabar.
The 19-year-old girl has been released to her parents, while the four suspects are cooling their heels in police custody. They were arrested while 'smiling to the Uyo, Akwa Ibom State branch of an old generation bank, to withdraw the N2.5 million ransom they demanded, and which the Commissioner had paid into the account of one of the suspects.
'As they got to the bank, smiling to go and withdraw the money, they did not know that they were on the precipice of their waterloo,' Okpene said.
Commenting further on the arrest, the PPRO said, 'we got every necessary data concerning them, even before they were arrested. We monitored their movement step by step, collating and storing information concerning their modus operandi in our computers.'
What led to the arrest of the suspects, reportedly started the previous day, when Emmanuel Essien and Sunday Udoh allegedly visited the bank and withdrew the sum of N150, 000, leaving N2.35million in the account.
According to the Police Public Relations officer, 'after they had withdrawn the sum of N150, 000 the previous day, they did not know that we had already gotten the account number which the money was paid into, and already there were some cameras and computers around, monitoring their transactions.'
Narrating the story, he said as the suspects approached the bank, one of the 'intelligence officers walked up to Emmanuel and called him by his name. After that the officer asked him where he kept the clothes he wore to the bank the previous day to withdraw N150, 000. Immediately he (Emmanuel) knew that he was in trouble, as he almost collapsed.'
Without denying the allegation, Emmanuel claimed that Usoro and Francis, who actually kidnapped the 19-year-old female undergraduate of the University of Calabar, allegedly 'used my account number without my consent'.
Emmanuel further claimed that 'when I enquired to know the source of the money, they told me that they were into a very lucrative business'. Apparently unruffled by the accusation, Usoro said 'I have an account, but it is not the bank account where the money was to be transferred. Besides, I did not want to use my own account number for some reasons.'
Describing the arrest as one of the greatest achievements recorded by the police command, Okpene said: 'it is imperative for every police officer to be computer literate, because most of the crimes committed nowadays are highly scientific and computerized.'
He appealed to the Inspector-General of Police to introduce compulsory computer training programmes for men and officers of the force. The 19-year-old girl has since been released to her parents.