I kidnapped to raise money for my baby’s diapers –Suspect

 By Juliana Francis

• Police used my pastor to arrest me –Gang member

IGP, Mohammed Adamu

“I was the person who pressurised others to kidnap her. I was only looking for money to buy diapers for my baby. Now I feel very sad that I got only N70, 000 out of N6.8 million. “I was using the motorcycle to carry gang members around town to look for victims to kidnap. I didn’t know her husband was a judge. I thought she was a contractor."

 Those were the confessional statements of a 25-year-old member of a kidnap gang, Luis Otubassy, who was among six suspects recently arrested for the abduction of the wife of Justice Ignatius Agube of the Court of Appeal.

Otubassy, who was the gang’s informant and motorcycle operator, said he took to kidnapping, following the government’s ban of motorcycles in Cross River State. But he is not alone. 30-yearold Bassey Nsense, who was among those that allegedly abducted Mrs Ekwele Agube, disclosed how his pastor lured and tricked him into the waiting arms of Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police’ Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), in Cross Rivers State.

Before dragging Agube off to an unknown destination, the hoodlums killed her aide, Glory Egbela but Agube was released after spending 14 days in the kidnappers’ den,while her family parted with N6.8million as ransom. However, a few days after, IRT Operatives, who were detailed to investigate and track down the kidnappers succeeded in arresting six members of the gang; Nsense Bassey alias Lion, Edet Ene, Christopher Effaeyo, Etim Offiong, Bassey Effiong and Luis Otubassy. The operatives also recovered two locally made guns and 15 live cartridges from the suspects.

Nsense, 30, a primary school dropout, married with four children, confessed to have taken to kidnapping like a duck to water because he had no means of feeding his children. He said everything turned bad for him and his family during the lockdown which followed the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic while noting that they were six gang members, who carried out the abduction on July 4. The six men cornered Agube along Ministry Road, off NPA Junction, Calabar, he recalled, while narrating that, few weeks after he completed an operation with his gang, he got a call from his pastor, asking him to come to the church. He never bargained, the call from his pastor was engineered by IRT Operatives. He trusted the pastor implicitly; never thinking the cleric could betray him. When he got to the church, IRT Operatives were on him like fleas on dogs. He blamed COVID-19 for his venture into crime.

 

 

Remembering his life, Nsense said: “My father had no job and my mother left him. I was left on the streets of Calabar to fend for myself. I couldn’t learn any skill, and was just roaming the streets. But five years ago, I met my wife. “We became friends and I impregnated her. She ended up having four children for me.

I was doing menial jobs to sustain my family, but when the COVID-19 pandemic started, there was a lockdown, I had no job and my family was hungry. One of my friends, Christian, introduced me into kidnapping.” Following the abduction, the victim’s husband, Justice Ignatius Agube, contacted afthe Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, informing him of his wife’s abduction. The IGP deployed IRT operatives, led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, to track and arrest the suspects. Investigation was launched and IRT tracked one of the phone numbers used in negotiating for ransom, to a gang leader, later identified as Nsense. During interrogation, he confessed to the crime and assisted operatives in the arrest of five other members, including the gang’s informant, cook and boat boy. Nsense said he led members of his gang in the abductions of two persons, a Cameroonian Diplomat and an Igbo businessman. The victims, who spent a week in the kidnappers’ den, were released after payment of ransom. Nsense narrated: “I joined kidnapping because I couldn’t get money to feed my children. Our first operation was at White Market area of Calabar, where we kidnapped an Igbo man selling vehicle spare parts. We were six that went for that operation and we had six pistols. “We kidnapped the victim along the road and took him to Waterside. I left them at that point and went home. Our members took him to our camp. It was Christian, who negotiated for the ransom and N2 million was eventually paid.

“I got N300, 000 as my share, which I used in buying clothes and food for my children. I gave part of the money to my brother; he is unemployed. I also gave N50, 000 to my wife to start a small business”, he said. He noted that a month after his first operation, the gang embarked on another operation, abducting a Cameroonian. When probed on how the foreigner was abducted, he replied: “We found him on the street, he wanted to buy something. After we kidnapped him, Christian collected his car and sold it. We took him into the creek, but I didn’t go with them because I didn’t know how to swim. “Christian was also the person who negotiated for the ransom. The man spent a week in our camp before his family paid N2 million as ransom. I got N270, 000 as my share. I used part of the money to buy a pistol from Christian. He sells locally made guns in the Ikang area of the state.”