ASABA — POLICE have seized a 36-year-old palace guard and suspected kidnap kingpin, alleged to have facilitated the abduction of Prof. Kamene Okonjo, mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, last December, in Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State by kidnappers.
DeltaState Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who confirmed the arrest of the suspect, Chiejine, to Vanguard, yesterday, said: “While the police in DeltaState were after him, the Lagos State Police Command was also after him for some criminal offences, so we have handed him over to them.”
He said the police did not have a hand in the Okonjo-Iweala mother kidnap until he was arrested by the police, last week, after a shootout in EdoState in connection with the death of 71-year-old Mrs. Regina Obi after collecting N2 million ransom from her family.
Police shot dead one of the suspected kidnappers and arrested four others in separate operations in Benin City and Ogwashi-Uku
Aduba said the suspect, who worked in the palace as a guard, confessed he was the one that brought the kidnappers to the palace to kidnap Prof. Okonjo.
He said Chiejine’s house in Ogbe-Ofu quarters, Ogwashi-Uku was demolished when it was confirmed he was a kidnapper.
Aduba stressed the need for people to be careful of the kind of people they employ as guards, saying: “This is the problem we have now, for practically every kidnap, there is an inside factor. Chiejine is very close to them in the palace and he is the one that brought the kidnappers.”
GISTMANIA