Kidnappers in police net for rape of female pastor

Juliana Francis

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a gang of kidnappers who abducted a female pastor for ransom and serially raped her.

The gang was said to have been busted after the woman pastor, escaped from the kidnappers’ camp, stark naked.

 She was said to have screamed as she ran out of the camp until residents in the area came out from their respective apartments to know what was going on. She was later taken to the Area N Police Command, Ijede.

It was further gathered that after the gang kidnapped the woman, they kept her permanently naked, raping her whenever they felt the urge.

On the fateful day she escaped, the members of the gang had gone for another operation, leaving her in the care of one of the kidnappers.  Aside from the woman pastor, a Briton was also held.

The woman had bolted out of the camp, after the kidnapper guarding her, attempted to rape her again. She was said to have jumped up and no longer caring about the gun pointed her, with a supernatural power, pushed away her would be rapist.

The man’s head slammed against the wall, while the woman ran out, screaming like the hounds of hell was after her. As soon as the kidnapper realized that the woman had bolted, he too took off, unmindful of the white victim under his guard. Apparently, he had rather run and hide, than face the wrath of their leader.

Residents gathered round the woman, gave her clothes and took her and the white man to Area N Police Command.

According to the residents, they never knew that the uncompleted building in their neighbourhood was a kidnappers’ camp.

Since the rescue of the female pastor, police has arrested about two of the kidnappers, while others, including their leader, identified as Sam, are still at large.

A police source revealed that since the arrest of some of the kidnappers, the woman has taken to coming to Ikeja, SARS, where she preaches to her rapists, urging them to give their lives to Jesus Christ. She told them that she had already forgiven them.

Among those arrested is Emeka, who has been singing like a bird to the police.

According to Emeka, Sam is the leader of the gang and even recruited.

Describing how the gang works, Emeka said that after Sam, one Ikechukwu Ibe is the second in command, while one Ugo is the messenger and pointer. He however described himself as the hit man.

Narrating how he became a member of the gang, Emeka, a trader, said that he used to travel down to Contonou, to buy fairly used clothes. But life turned pretty tough for him and his family after officials of the Nigerian Customs seized all his goods.

A police source said: “Emeka said that after Customs seized his goods, he had nothing left, his business collapsed.  Every Xmas and New Yam festival, he used to go village with his friends to display his wealth. But those travels and displays stopped too.”

According to Emeka, last December, he visited the village and saw Sam, whom he had once financially assisted.

 Emeka told Sam about how life had been tough since his encounter with Customs officials and the eventual loss of his of business.

After listening to Emeka’s tales of woes, Sam gave him N21, 000 and asked him to call him once he gets to Lagos.

As soon as Emeka got to Lagos, he called Sam, who asked him to meet him at a certain hotel.

When Emeka reached the hotel, he met Sam with four other men. They were gorgeously dressed.

Sam pulled Emeka away from the men and went back to continue the meeting.

According to Emeka, after the meeting, he and Sam drove to Ajao Estate, which turned out to be Sam’s place.

During the night, Sam woke Emeka and told him that he and the four men he saw in the hotel were professional kidnappers.

Emeka said: “Sam told me that they don’t kill, but only used to threaten their victims. He told me that his uncompleted building at the village was through money gotten from kidnapping. He said that if I joined them,  I’ll soon become rich again.”

Sam asked Emeka to meet him on a Saturday at a hotel, along international airport road.

Emeka started for the venue, but it began to rain, slowing him down. He called Sam to explain the situation, Sam asked him to meet him at under bridge, along the international airport road.

When he reached under bridge, he saw Sam and four others in a jeep. They left that night for Ajah.

Sam was driving and repeatedly kept making phone calls. After the call, Sam became angry, but did not say why. The phone rang again, but Sam refused to pick this time. He drove on and saw a vehicle coming. As soon as the vehicle passed them, Sam said ‘confirmed.’ 

He quickly pursued the vehicle and overtook it. The driver, sighting armed men, jumped out of the car and ran away. Investigations had since revealed that the driver (Jude Muyiwa) was part of the gang that planned the kidnapper of his boss, a local government chairman.

The driver bolted and abandoned his boss in the car. The kidnappers took over the steering of the car and Emeka and Sam were left in the Jeep the gang came with.

The jeep followed behind the Black Toyota Yaris, which the gang had snatched, along with its occupant.

They drove for about an hour, then Emeka suddenly noticed a signboard, saying Ogijo, then they reached an uncompleted building. They met another set of three kidnappers there.

The newly kidnapped victim was stripped to his boxer. Incidentally, the gang members already knew he was a local government chairman, but Emeka said he only found out after they reached the uncompleted building.

The kidnappers used his phone to make contact with his family members and demanded for ransom.

One of the kidnappers, who spoke Hausa fluently, identified as Innocent, was the one communicating with the family of the local government chairman.

After four days of phone calls and negotiation, the chairman was taken and dropped off at a filling station, closed tot Onipanu.

Later, Sam told Emeka that they collected a ransom of N5m from the victim’s family.  Emeka collected N500, 000 as his own part of the loot.

Emeka said that after that deal, there was nothing for almost two weeks.

The third week, Sam called Emeka, explaining that there was another operation. This time around, they kidnapped a Briton who worked with Chevron.

They kept the Briton at the uncompleted building, while negotiation over the Briton was on; the gang kidnapped the female pastor.

It was gathered that as soon as she was kidnapped, she started shouting, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! They contacted her husband and demanded for N20m.

Later Sam raped the woman, followed by Innocent and Emeka. She was kept permanently naked, to allow them easy access to rape her.

Initially the gang demanded N50m as ransom for the Briton, but settled for N25m.

Emeka said: “The woman pastor used to cry every day. She also used to pray continuously. I began to feel sorry for her.”

Emeka recalled that Sam instructed him and Ugo, to go to Ojota, Caterpillar junction and collect the N25m ransom, meant to secure the Briton’s release.

As they headed for Ojota, Sam kept track of them via phone.

Emeka said: “Sam told me that as soon as we locate and collect the bag of money, I should separate myself from Ugo. He said that once I entered our car, I should start to traffic gate. He said that the car, which those with the ransom were supposed to come in, would dim light, and then I should move closer. As the car traffic-gate, Ugo moved closer.

“There was a Sienna car at the back of the car, two policemen suddenly came out and ran after the bus. They passed me and chased after Ugo. They opened fire. Sam, who was in another car, waiting for us to collect the money and join him, heard the gunshots and quickly drove off, leaving me behind. I too started running. The Sienna car pursued and caught up with me. The policemen bundled us into the Sienna car. Ugo’s corpse was also loaded into the car.”

SARS men went to Ogijo, Ijede and on getting to the Area N Police Command, they saw the kidnapped Briton and the female pastor.

Investigation led to the arrest of Ikechukwu Ibe, one of the kidnappers, but Sam and Innocent are still at large.

The driver of the local government chairman, one Jude Muyiwa is also still at large. Muyiwa was the person who planned the kidnap of his boss. He was given N300, 000 for his pains.

In the building, police recovered one AK47 rifle, one pump action rifle. But Emeka told police that the guns were supposed to be three in numbers.