Mike Ozekhome
There
were indications on Wednesday that a major financier of a kidnapping
ring in Edo and other surrounding states, Kelvin Oburuvbe might have
been arrested by men of the Department of State Security.
It was reliably gathered that the kidnap
kingpin was picked up in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, by operatives of
DSS and is currently being interrogated.
There were however conflicting reports
that the arrested kidnapper might be the one who recently issued a
60-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to declare amnesty for him
and his gang, otherwise his group would blow up oil installations in
Urobo speaking areas of the country.
It was further gathered that Oburuvbe
was instrumental to the recent abduction of human rights lawyer, Mike
Ozekhome, his driver and a leader of the All Progressives Congress,
Chief Athansius Ugbome on Saturday, August 24, 2013. Ozekhome and Ugbome
were released about one week apart after over two weeks in the
kidnappers’s den and payment of ransom.
Although the Edo State SSS Director,
Bello Bakori, could not be reached, a source close to his office
confirmed that Oburuvbe was trailed from his hideout after a tip-off,
before his arrest by the operatives of the Department of State Security.
The source said the operatives had been
on Oburuvbe trail for more than two years, adding that the kidnap
kingpin lives abroad and only comes back to the state whenever he has
any abduction operation to carry out.
“We have been on his trail for more than
two years. He is responsible for most of the high profile kidnap in the
state. The latest is the kidnap of Chief Mike Ozekhome in August this
year,” the source said.
The kidnapping czar, according to
investigation, operates several abduction camps in Edo State, where
victims are kept before their families are contacted to pay ransom.
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