Posted by By CHRIS ANUCHA on
Two men have unwittingly landed themselves in the soup as their attempt to pose as kidnappers of the missing son of a university don and claim N300,000 ransom failed.
Two men have unwittingly landed themselves in the soup as their attempt to pose as kidnappers of the missing son of a university don and claim N300,000 ransom failed.
Odiowei Ibarakumo Ibiwene, 22-year-old undergraduate of the University of Science and Technology, Port-Harcourt, was said to have been kidnapped by unknown persons on May 17, 2005 and has since not been seen.
A development arose in July, when the father, Professor C. Ekiye got a phone call from a man in Lagos, who identified himself as Mr Dandiel, informing him that his kidnapped son was in his custody.
The caller demanded that N300,000 ransom be paid into his account, if the professor wanted the son released alive. The caller whose real names are Williams Joshua advised Professor Ekiye to pay the money into his Union Bank account, Akowonjo branch in Lagos.
"The condition was to be met before the kidnappers could release his son," a police source said.
Ekiye, it was gathered, headed for the Union Bank branch in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and paid the sum of N300,000 into Williams account number 822000039954.
The Yenagoa branch manager of the bank was, however, to alert his counterpart in Lagos to monitor the owner of the account and report him to the police any time he came to withdraw the money.
On July 22, Williams, a primary three drop-out, drove to the Akowonjo branch to ascertain whether the money had been paid into his account.
On inquiry, Williams, who only had N2,000 (Two thousand naira) left in the account, was elated to be told he had got a N300,000 deposit.
As he filled the teller to withdraw some money, detectives moved in and told him that the game was up.
Williams, who was initially detained at the Idimu Police Station in Lagos along with Sunday Agbor before CID men from Port-Harcourt came for them, told Daily Sun that he did not know anything about the kidnap of Professor Ekiye's son.
He said all he did was to use "my brains to dupe him."
The suspect, who claimed to be an airport taxi driver explained that he came in contact with Ekiye when he took the professor as a passenger from local airport to Airport Hotel.
He said since then, the Prof. had always patronised him any time he travelled to Lagos through the airport.
"Anytime Prof. is in Lagos, he usually hired my cab. I normally drive him to his hotel room. We now became friends," he said.
According to him, it was on one of such trips to Lagos that Ekiye bared his mind to him.
"He called me and said, the only problem I have in this world now is my missing son. He was kidnapped in Port Harcourt and I have not seen him up till now," Williams claimed
He said with that clue, he went home and started wracking his brains on how to cash in on the don's predicament and make "cool money."
One night, he said devil sold the idea to him to call the Professor to tell him that his missing son was in his custody, and that he needed to pay a ransom for his release.
"I now manipulated my voice so that he won't know I was the one calling. I also hid my number in the handset and called him to say I was the one that kidnapped his son."
Williams, who blamed the devil for his action appealed to the police to set him free, adding that his four children had fallen sick since his arrest and his pregnant wife about to put to bed.
The second suspect, Agbor said Williams was his friend and that he met him that morning on his way to Ikeja.
Agbor explained that Williams did not disclose how he got the money he was asked to accompany him to withdraw from the bank.
But the police said he has a case to answer, adding that he was monitoring the situation while Williams went into the bank to withdraw the money.
Detectives from Port Harcourt are carrying out further investigations into the matter.