LADY ORGANISES CHILDHOOD FRIEND KIDNAP
CRIME:
•For being stingy …
After victim’s father gave her N.5m gift
NGOZI UWUJARE
It was a shocking moment recently in Onitsha, Anambra State as a lady was arrested for allegedly organising the kidnap of her childhood friend.
The suspect, Ekwy Okadigbo, Crimewatch gathered, lured her friend, who is a legal practitioner, Mimiy Onyekweli, to a restaurant where she had organised for her abduction. The victim was, however, fortunate as investigation revealed that her car, that was to be used to convey her to the abductors’ hideout refused to work. But at that point, Onyekweli had been blindfolded and was held inside the car. In the confusion that ensued, Onyekweli escaped from her abductors and alerted the police.
Okadigbo’s grouse with her friend, according to her, was that Onyekweli refused to give her money when she requested.
“She was said to have informed the suspected gang leader, Chinedu, of the bad habit of her childhood friend who was said to be greedy and tight fisted,” a police source revealed. Interestingly, two days before Okadigbo allegedly lured her friend into the hand of the suspected gang, Onyekweli’s father saw the friends together and happily gave Okadigbo N500,000.
The state Commissioner of Police, Ballah Nasarawa, told Crimewatch that Okadigbo was the mastermind of the kidnapping of Onyekweli so that ransom could be collected. Nasarawa said that the police arrested Okadigbo while the others escaped.
More details in Thursday’s Daily Sun.
The real story happened thus:
I live and work in Lagos. I traveled to Onitsha my hometown for an event and a church program. Everything ended on a sunday. On monday, I wanted to make my hair as I had a favorite hairdresser who resided in the town and she always made sure she styled my hair the few times I came around. While I was waiting to be taken to the salon, the EKWY SOKEI who I later learnt was EKWY OKADIGBO visited the house and asked to see my mum. That she was broke and needed money to eat at home. That was about the third or fourth time I was having a conversation with her in my entire life, so the issue of her being a friend is farfetched while the claim about being my childhood friend is a complete LIE!!!
I distinctly remember being repelled by her appearance for no reason whatsoever and I found that disconcerting as I had always urged her to try to receive a university education the previous times I had seen her. I was never even formally introduced to her, as with matters like this when one is a member of a large family, relations and friends come around and being a naturally friendly person I am nice to most people I meet and engage in conversations if they so desire. Anyway I saw her and she exclaimed and we exchanged pleasantries and she said she hoped I would give her ‘something’ because it had a been a while she had seen me. I told her that I would try. She tried to be too familiar with me and I was perplexed, for even though I had talked to her a couple of times before, we weren’t really that close. So I asked her to wait in the living room while I informed my mum of her presence. But my mum said she couldn’t see her because she was tired and recuperating from a hip surgery. She asked me again for some money and I promised her that I would give her before I left town for I didn’t really have any cash on me and had plans of collecting money for my hair from my parents. She agreed and left.
A few minutes later, my father offered to drop me off at the salon as my brother had gone out with my car. On our way, we saw her walking home with a young man, near our gate and I remember feeling weird and wondering where the boy had been when she came into our house, She saw us and flagged us down and my dad asked if I knew why she was stopping us and I said no, he stopped and she said that she needed bike fare home. And he gave her about N500 or N1000, so imagine my shock and horror when I read about the N500.000.00. Lmao!!!
He then dropped me off at the salon and went to awka for a meeting. I called my brother to pick me from the salon around the hours of 05:45 and he came about 6pm. I was cross with him for he had wasted time, he pleaded with me and hugged me and we laughed and I got into the car. On our way home, he said he wanted to pick his friend from her house. I agreed and when we got there, I sat in the car while he went down. I saw his friend’s father and not wanting to be rude, came down to pay my respects. As he was asking me how i was and so, I heard my name and lo, it was another aunty of mine, a close family friend who was really close to my family and whose grown children are my friends. I went over to greet her in front of her shop and she said that it had been a while and offered me a drink, I declined respectfully but she insisted, and my brother and his friend accepted on my behalf already so I laughed and sat down. I ordered a bottle of smirnoff Ice and before I had taken a few sips, the Ekwy girl came in, and I was surprised but when I asked my brother, he said she had called him and that she lived opposite his girlfriend’s house and was a distant cousin of hers. She sat down and refused to maintain eye contact with me.
After about six minutes, I said we had to go, and while my aunt was telling me to stay awhile and continue our gist and at least finish my drink or wait for my brother to finish his, I noticed the girl go outside and make a call and came back to sit down. Five minutes later, A guy came in with a red t-shirt and brought out a handgun and shouted, ‘everybody lie down’, I thought it was a joke for I had never encountered such in my life. Two more came in, with the third standing in the shadows outside the entrance all armed with AK-47 rifles. I quickly lay down face down terrified, the woman who had the shop tried to shout and they broke her hand, I saw blood splashing the wall, my brother lay down on top of me. I was so scared….then one of them said, so which one is the girl? Next thing, I felt a hand grip the waistband of my skirt and pull me up. And he said, give us your car keys, at that point I felt they were car snatchers, I saw my brother look at the key and say nothing, he then tried to grab me and confront the one holding me, the one with the AK-47 tried to shoot at him or something but I don’t know what happened and the gun jammed, the bullet fell out of the chamber, without going off. I then screamed and pushed my brother down, started frantically searching for the key where I had seen it, found it and gave it to them.
And then I got the shock of my life, they told me to follow them quietly and I did so immediately. When we got to my car, they pushed me inside and all of them got in, with the one holding a gun to me all this while. They shut the doors and tried to start the car, but i soon realized that they couldn’t, for it was a keyless/push to start ignition. They started getting angry and told me to start the car, I said that I didn’t know how, crying and begging them to believe them. They asked me if my brother could drive, I said yes for I had already seen him leave the shop with my peripheral vision. I also told them my driver was there too. Two of them got down from the car and went back to the shop to look for them. After a while they came back, arguing amongst themselves, I was never blindfolded. After a while all three of them came down with their guns and started walking away, I turned off the inner light of the car, opened the door and saw them standing some paces away and I quietly came down from the car and ran, I started hearing gun shots so I jumped a fence and even broke my leg in the process, never having done that before. I kept running, till I heard my brother’s voice, he took me into a nearby house, that was when I saw bruises all over my body and say that my toes were bent into unnatural angles. Later, everyone reconvened but I didn’t see the Ekwy girl even though this was all happening outside her house. She never came home that night. My brother said, she kept calling him and asking him about me, how I was and where I was. she also said that she had run to her friend’s place out of fear.
The next day, the salon owner came to my house and said she had heard what had happened. She also mentioned that three armed boys came to her salon, immediately I left. I started asking my brother questions about his movements the day before. He said he went out in the morning and had seen the Ekwy and that he told her I was around because she saw him with my car. So I thought to myself, she had already known I was around, why then did she act shocked to see me? He also mentioned that she called him repeatedly on that day asking after me and that he didn’t read much meaning to it, thinking only that she wanted to make sure I gave her something before I left. He also said that she always told him about how much she admired me and would want to be close to me, every time he saw her. He told her that I was at the salon and that he was going to pick me later on in the evening around 6pm. And that was when the salon lady said the armed men came. She left her shop and ran away when she saw them.
I put two and two together. I mean, it is simple deductive reasoning really, and I also considered a lot of things that I’m not going to write as this post has become really long. She did not come home for 10 days, then I heard she came back on the twelfth day wearing the same clothes she wore the night this happened. and so I went to the police station and made a formal report and wrote a statement. Then I traveled back to Lagos.
I received a call one day that she had been arrested for questioning and that after sometime without any force, she confessed. She gave details that could only have been known to the perpetrator of the act. She called names, said the morning she came to the house, she had come to make sure I was around and that she brought one of the kidnappers to show him my house and help him decide on the best place to carry out the operation. She also said that the plan had been in the pipeline since march. When asked why, she said there was no reason, that she felt she would make some money. Her mother and family called me for the first time in their lives and pleaded. After some soul-searching and appeals made by fellow onitsha indigenes on Facebook, I told the police that I would not press charges, they agreed and said that they just wanted to complete their investigation and perhaps catch some of her cohorts. I made this hard and sad decision after I thought about the death penalty or long imprisonment associated with kidnapping in Nigeria. The case is ended. This happened about two months ago so I have no idea where this story originated from. She did not lure me anywhere. She is not my friend or childhood friend. My father never gave her N500, 000. I was never blindfolded. God just saved me and reassured me of his protection. I cannot thank Him enough. Please help by writing comments correcting this false story wherever it is posted thanks.
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