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When news broke that suspected notorious
kidnap kingpin, Chukwudubem Onwuamadike (AKA Evans) had been arrested
in Lagos by the police on June 10, many people celebrated the security
agencies that made it happen.
But far less known was the celebration it produced in the compound of the Iloenyosi family of Abagana, Anambra State.
For this family, the news of Evans arrest was a personal victory.
It all began one early morning on
November 25, 2013 when the patriarch of the family, Chief James
Iloenyosi, was kidnapped on his way back from mass.
His son, Chikelue Iloenyosi, former
Super Eagles player who played professional football in France and
Turkey, has not been able to get over what happened to his father. He
narrated the event that quickly became a game of hide and seek between
criminals and the law enforcement agents.
He told Saturday PUNCH in an
emotion-laden tone that his father, who was 86 at the time, was on his
way back from their local Catholic church when three SUVs double-crossed
him and whisked him away.
He would never see his father alive again.
“When they took him away, they did not
talk to us until after five days. They phoned my twin sister. She was
sobbing when she called me that the kidnappers had made contact.
“When we the children gathered, my
sister called the kidnappers again and they simply told us that they
would call back. They did not call back until after another five days
just to build our anxiety.”
The N50m ransom negotiation
According to Chikelue, with no idea what
could be going on with his father, the kidnappers on the morning of the
fifth day called to demand a ransom of N50m.
The routine of begging and pleading for
the reduction of the ransom started at this point and after many days,
they eventually reduced the ransom to N15m.
Chikelue said, “When we paid the N15m, my father was already dead and we did not know.
“What made me upset was that despite how seriously we worked to get him back, my father did not come out of it alive.”
But upon payment of the ransom, the
kidnappers said they were not releasing their victim until the family
brought more money. But they never heard from the kidnappers again.
Breakthrough arrests four months later
However, after four months of
investigation into the kidnap, said to have involved hundreds of
policemen in Anambra State combing the forest at the time, security
agencies got a break when a member of the gang that kidnapped Chikelue’s
father, a suspect known as Nonso, was arrested along with three other
members of his gang.
Chikelue said at the time, Evans was
already a popular criminal well known to the State Anti-Robbery Squad of
the Anambra State Police Command.
He was said to be a wanted robber known for hitting bullion vans.
“The SARS boss in Anambra told me at the
time that any suspect arrested for any major crime always mentioned the
name of Evans,” he said.
According to him, the family had to
involve a private investigator in the case at a point when there was no
longer news about their father’s whereabouts months after the family
paid the ransom.
In addition to this, he said a friend of
his based in Israel helped to track his father’s line and traced it to a
young lady, who said Nonso was his boyfriend.
Chikelue told Saturday PUNCH, “When we
arrested the girl, she said Nonso only gave her the phone for
safe-keeping, instructing her not to put it on. We started tracking
Nonso. At a point, the current leader of the IRT, Abba Kyari, gave us 18
of his men to follow us to Cotonou, Benin Republic because our trace on
Nonso’s line showed he was there.
“We got there and the police arrested a
young man, who said he came to buy a car. He said the number was not his
and that he only wanted to use it to call somebody in Nigeria. The
police had to let him go when it was clear he knew nothing.
“Later we left the Cotonou guy. Again, our private tracker traced him to Lokoja, Kogi State.”
Evan’s gang member arrested in Lokoja
However, intelligence later suggested that Nonso was in Lokoja.
According to him, he and other members
of the gang were said to have relocated there immediately they shared
the ransom because many security agencies were after the gang.
Chikelue said after identifying the
hotel the suspect might be hiding in, some members of the SARS team in
Kogi State moved in to make the arrest.
He said, “I was in Lokoja for two months with a private tracker before we arrested Nonso.
“When we got to the hotel with the
police that day, we requested for the list of the people staying at the
hotel. The hotel staff mentioned a “small boy” with his girlfriend in
one of the rooms.
“We knocked on the door and the
girlfriend came out. He said her boyfriend was in the bathroom. But I
was hearing a sound inside. He was trying to escape through the window
but SARS operatives were already stationed around the hotel.
“He eventually came out and said his
name was Emmanuel. But I knew it was him right away because we had been
able to obtain his photograph ahead.
“But because I did not want him to
panic, I pretended it was not him and told the SARS operatives in his
presence that the person we were looking for was an older man.
“He relaxed and was going inside when I
called him and said I wanted to ask him something. I dialled his phone
number there and then when it rang, we took it and it showed the name
‘Kidnapper football’. The SARS operatives immediately pounced on him and
handcuffed him.
“I asked Nonso if he knew me, he said he
did not. I told him I was the footballer whose number he saved with
that name. He then asked if I was ‘General’ – my alias – and I said
yes.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that as soon as
Nonso was arrested, he became submissive. He reportedly pleaded for his
life, saying he would provide any information the police needed.
“He immediately told us that his leader
was Evans. But he said there was no way we could get Evans because he
had fled to Lagos after the completion of the operation. At this point,
Nonso kept our hope alive. He said my father was still alive. He refused
to give precise information,” Chikelue told our correspondent.
The ex-footballer said he was very hopeful at that point and believed he was indeed going to get his father back alive. Nonso, who was transported back to
Anambra in the company of SARS operatives later provided the police with
Evans’ phone line, with which they started tracking him
When the police team got to Anambra with
the suspect, he reportedly began to plead not to be taken to SARS
headquarters in the state for fear of being tortured and killed. He said
he was willing to give up all the necessary information.
Nonso told the police that Evans was always on the move after each operation.
Chikelue said, “We were calling Evans to
pinpoint his location but it was all abortive. Nonso was later made to
call another member of the gang called Awolowo to inform him that there
was an operation.
“But Awolowo said he did not want to do
any operation at the time because his wife had just put to bed. Nonso
said Awolowo was part of Evans’ Asaba, Delta State group.”
Suspects refused to confess
The police later arrested Awolowo and two others.
For many days, these suspects were said to have kept mum.
It was learnt that they refused to
divulge any information about Evans, which the police suspected was
owing to the fact that they had taken an oath.
In fact, one of the suspects, who was on
the verge of confessing was said to have suddenly started acting like
someone with a mental illness.
Even Nonso’s girlfriend who was also
arrested was said to have refused to give any information that could
implicate her boyfriend.
“The most shocking thing was that when
the police interrogated Nonso, he said that if the SARS ever wanted
peace in Anambra, they should kill the lady. He said she was the one
responsible for taking care of the gang and that she helped them buy
drugs and collected ransom on their behalf,” Chikelue said.
But he said while all these were going on, his only concern was knowing his father’s whereabouts.
One day, while Chikelue was at the SARS
office, he found a sudden ally in an armed robbery suspect called
Onyeso, who was detained there.
Chikelue said, “He pulled me aside and
said, ‘My brother, you are a good man because you always give money so
that the police could buy us food when you come here’. He said he wanted
to give me a privileged information.
“He said if we wanted any result, we
should take Awolowo to the backyard and tell the police to shoot their
gun in the air as if they had killed him. He said the other one would
start confessing because they had indeed taken an oath.
“When the police did this, Nonso started
confessing when he was told Awolowo had been killed. He said he would
take us to where my father was buried.
“We journeyed into the forest for three
and half hours before we got to where they buried him. I broke down and
my sister who was there at the time fainted.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the late Pa Iloenyosi was buried around Nneyi village in Umueri community.
But most heartbreaking was the information that the old man might have been starved or beaten to death.
When Nonso was asked how the old man
died, he explained that it was the fault of those manning the hideout
where Evans kept the man.
Pa Iloenyosi was said to have been
stripped to his underwear, kept in a cold room and beaten regularly in
order to put more pressure on his children.
Chikelue said, “While we were
negotiating for ransom, they would call and put the phone on speaker so I
could hear how they beat him. My father would cry and beg me to find a
way to ensure his freedom.
“We buried him few days after we found
his body and started the search for Evans. One of the vital information
Nonso gave us was that they were on their way to a robbery when they got
information about my father and they diverted to Abagana to kidnap him.
So, I was really particular about the arrest of Evans so that he could
tell us who in our community gave them the information.”
Chikelue said he was the happiest man in
the world the day he heard Evans had been arrested. But he said he was
particularly upset when he read that Evans was begging for his life with
the excuse that he had never killed a victim before.
“What Evans did to my family was the
most painful thing anybody can experience. When I read he has been
begging for sympathy, I just laughed. The death penalty for people like
him is the only solution. Evans can never repent despite all the second
chance he is begging for.”
Chikelue said the police were already
aware of Evans connection to his father’s kidnap and murder and are
taking it into account in the case against him.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Police
Command says it is liaising with its Lagos State counterpart on the
records of Evans’ past crimes in the state.
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