- Police arrest two brothers who avenged their sister’s kidnap
In Nigeria, even so-called men of God fake their own kidnap; same with husbands and wives. Sometimes, children also fake their own kidnap. Kidnapping has become fashionable in Africa’s most populous nation.
There is no end to kidnapping in Nigeria as kidnappers are often handsomely rewarded and sometimes given amnesty.
Even in Zamfara State, bandits who killed, kidnapped and razed houses were given ‘palatial’ treatment as they sat among policemen, traditional rulers, etc., to decide how peace could be maintained in the state. No arrest was made.
You kill, kidnap and commit arson in Nigeria, you are more likely to be respected.
But not every criminal-minded person enjoys that.
At other times, they are idolized and made celebrities. Upon the capture of the ‘billionaire’ kidnapper, Evans, Nigerian policemen excitedly posed for selfies with the alleged notorious kidnapper.
In Enugu, the kidnapping tale in Nigeria has become more intriguing with the news two brothers who kidnapped a member of another family for a bemusing reason, you will only know about in Nollywood movies.
According to PUNCH, two siblings were arrested by operatives of the Enugu State Police Command, on Friday.
They were Hyacinth Okeh and Fredrick Okweli.
Okeh and Okweli claimed that they were forced into kidnapping to avenge the abduction of their sister by their victim’s brothers.
These suspects were aged 20 and 22 respectively, are from Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ebere Amaraizu, said they were arrested following their alleged involvement in the kidnap of Enejere Charles, who he claimed was their third victim.
Ebere Amaraizu said N187,000, two automatic pump action guns, charms, and two single-barrelled guns were recovered from the suspects.
But speaking to a source, the two men, who confessed to the crime, said they kidnapped their victim because his brothers, whose names they gave as Ogbonna Michael and Ezea Ifeanyi abducted their sister and collected N600,000 as ransom before her release.
Fredrick Okweli said: “I was arrested with my brother for kidnapping one man from our community. His brother abducted our sister and we kidnapped his brother in retaliation.
“We took our victim inside the bush and called his people to pay money before we released him.
“They paid the money but when we went to collect it at Ubollo-Afor in Udenu Local Government Area, the police arrested us”.
Hyacinth Okeh said: “After the money was paid and we were going to collect it at Ubollo-Afor, we didn’t know that security operatives had set a trap for us.
“Immediately we got to the place, we were arrested and taken back to the bush where we hid the victim and the gun, we used to carry out the operation.
“We had never kidnapped anybody before. We were forced to do this because Michael and Ifeanyi kidnapped our sister and collected money from us despite pleading with them,” he claimed.