A notorious kidnapper, Nwobodo Uchechukwu, has revealed that he masterminded the beheading of the leader of his gang, Christian Nkemjika a.k.a School Boy, because he was very greedy.
Uchechukwu was arrested alongside other members of his gang- Tony Rafael; Nnaji Romanus; Nwobodo Uche and Uchechukwu Ibekwe, by the operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
The suspects were arrested from their hideouts in Rivers and Imo States.
They were said to have kidnapped the Chief Accountant of Plantgeria Limited, an oil firm based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Dr. S.M.C Maduagwu in February 2018 and collected N20 million ransom.
Uchechukwu, 38, disclosed that School Boy collected more than the amount he collected as ransom on a kidnap victim he kidnapped on behalf of the gang.
He stated that School Boy deceitfully declared a sum of N10 million instead of N20 million ransom he was paid by family members of the victim.
He said: “I am a full time farmer, but I went into kidnapping when my wife fell sick and was down with stroke. Her doctor demanded the sum of N200, 000 deposit (for her treatment) and I approached School-Boy my gang leader; he gave me the sum of N100, 000 to give to the doctor. He told me about the accountant I was to closely watch or monitor and I did as he instructed for about one month till the day he was ready to kidnap the man. I trailed the man (victim) from the time he left his office and when he got to Oil Mill junction, Schoolboy and other members of the gang who were decked in polce abd army uniform abducted the man and took him away in their Toyota Hilux van.
The man was taken to my farm where he was kept and negotiation for his ransom was concluded. I wasn’t in the farm with them, but after the kidnapping, School-Boy gave me the balance of N100,000 to give to my wife’s doctor. Two weeks later School Boy informed me that N10 million had been paid as ransom for the release of the accountant release and that the man had been freed.
“At that time, I didn’t doubt him and all of us that took part in the operation to the home of a native doctor known as Romanus Nnaji and he started sharing the money. He handed me the sum of N1.5million to give to Ibekwe and Stanley, the informants that brought the job and he also gave me N500, 000 as my own share.
“Few months after that operation, I got a call that my brother had been arrested by the police over the kidnapping of the accountant and that the actual amount paid for the man’s freedom was N20million. I felt bad that School-Boy cheated every one of us by declaring N10 million as the only ransom that was paid and he kept the other N10million to himself and shared the one he declared with us.
“I said nothing at that time because the police were looking for me and I ran to a church in Akwa Ibom for prayers to ask God for forgiveness and told the people at the church about the police that were looking for me. But while I was at the church, the policemen trailed me down to the church and luckily for me I was in the church’s toilet when I saw the police van and I fled into the bush.
“I trekked in that bush to Ndoni area of Rivers State. When I got back, I called School Boy and told him that the police were looking for me and I could not continue to run and I assured him that I will surrender myself but he threatened to kill me.
“I then ran to Imo State and I stayed there for three weeks and the police came again to look for me but I escaped. While I was running away to hide for the tide to pass, I called School-Boy to give me part of the N10million he refused to declare to the gang so that I could run out of the country, but he refused, and I felt the best thing I should do at the moment was to set him up and have him killed.
“I contacted some members of De-Gbam confraternity who had been looking for him and I gave out his location to them and they attacked and beheaded him. After they succeeded in the killing of School-Boy, I approached a lawyer in Owerri Imo State where I was hiding with my pregnant wife to seek a legal advice on what I could do since the police were hunting for me everywhere. I was there when the nurse at the hospital where my wife had gone to deliver her baby told me on the telephone that policemen had trailed my wife to her hospital and I ran away again. I was later arrested in June 2019 by the operatives in Orlu Imo State,’’ he added.