A seven-year-old pupil of Martha Dei
Primary School in Ogoja, Cross River State, Williams Ebele, said the
kidnappers that abducted him on June 10, 2013 gave him ice cream to lure
him to their hideout in the bush.
Ebele, who was abducted for four days
before he was rescued by the police, also said the kidnappers took him
once to a nearby river to take his bath.
He spoke on Friday at the headquarters
of the Cross River State Police Command in Calabar, where two of his
abductors alongside six other arrested criminals, were paraded by the
state Police Commissioner, Mr. Kola Sodipo.
The names of the arrested suspected
kidnappers were Mark Odey (27) and Julius Ogbor (22). Other paraded
suspects who were linked to armed robbery, cultism and communal clash
comprised Victor Edu (21); Ubong Udo (21); Anthony Etowa (30); Mathew
Akpana (26); and Ikechukwu Okereke (30).
Items recovered from the suspects were
one GPMG gun, two AK49 rifles, one AK47 rifle, one assault rifle, seven
rounds of GPMG live ammunition, eight empty magazines of AK rifles and
speedboat W23 fitted with 200HP Yamaha engine.
Ebele said he was given only biscuits (cabin) to eat for the four days he stayed in the hideout.
He said, “They (kidnappers) came to my
school after we had closed and said my father was calling me. I had not
seen them before but followed them because they gave me ice cream. They
took me to the bush and they gave me cabin biscuit for four days.
“On the day I was rescued, they gave me
their mobile phone to speak with my daddy and I told him that I was in
the bush and that he should come and carry me. That was how he came with
police to rescue me. Some of the kidnappers ran away.”
One of the arrested kidnappers, Julius
Ogbor (22), who hails from Yala Local Government Area of the state, said
he was introduced into the crime because he needed money.
Ogbor said, “We went to the boy’s school
after discovering that the father could cough up some money. We
demanded N5m ransom but he (the boy’s father) later agreed to pay N1m.
“We were waiting to receive the N1m when
the father came with police to our hideout in the bush and some of us
were apprehended.”
However, the state Commissioner of
Police, Kola Sodipo, said the rescue was one of the numerous
breakthroughs the command had achieved while combating crime in the last
one month.
Sodipo said two suspected sea pirates
were on June 9 shot dead by men of his command while attempting to
attack a Nigerian Ports Authority vessel, MT AUCKLAND, along the
Calabar-Oron waterways.
He said the suspects were shot during a
gun duel which ensued after the pirates were accosted by a team of
Marine Police on patrol along the Calabar-Oron channel as they were
about to attack the vessel.
Sodipo also said the command arrested 27
suspected armed robbers, four other kidnappers and 15 cultists during
the period under review, adding that all arrested suspects would soon be
charged to court.
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