The two military personnel, Lance Corporals Musa Maidabra and Edwin George, serving at 122D30 Regiment in Maiduguri, Borno State, arrested in connection with the kidnap of the wife of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Margaret Emefiele, have confessed to the crime.
The two soldiers said they received N6.5m each as their share of the ransom said to be around N13m.
They confessed while being paraded in Edo State yesterday.
Recall that Margaret was recently abducted by a group of heavily-armed gunmen along the Benin-Agbor road.
She was, however, rescued by the operation carried out by the IGP’s Special Intelligence Monitoring Team, headed by Abba Kyari, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP.
In their confession, Maidabra and George said they were given the money (N13m) for assisting the gang to transport the ransom to a hideout in Benin, the Edo State capital.
Maidabra said, “We were not involved in the kidnapping; we only assisted them to transport the money to a location.
“We carried the money and ran away with it in a vehicle; it was part of my friend’s share that I collected. We didn’t know the money was from a kidnap operation.”
On his part, George said they provided security cover for transporting the ransom to a hideout in Benin.
“I was not involved in the kidnap; the money they gave me was over N6m. I asked about the source of the money, but they didn’t tell me.”
While parading the suspects and the ransom recovered from them, the Force Public Relations Officer, FPRO, Donald Awunah, said an SUV, valued at N1.5m and N4m cash were recovered from Maidabra, while a Honda Accord, estimated at N1.1m, was recovered from George.
He stated that the police recovered N14,725,000, two Honda Accord cars, an Audi car, one AK 47 magazine and two cartridges from the gang.
“Detectives recovered N7.7m from Musa out of his N10m share. He sustained bullet wounds after a gun duel with the police while trying to escape from the forest where they had kept their victim.
“Mohammed Sule confessed to have received N10m in cash as part of his share of the ransom paid and claimed a soldier and a gang leader escaped with the rest of the loot.
“Another suspect, Ibrahim Abdullahi, admitted to have received N10m in cash.
“The police will continue to limit the capacity of kidnappers and other criminals to disrupt the quality of life of Nigerians by the deployment of adequate manpower and resources in crime reduction, detection and prosecution of offenders.”
The FPRO spoke further on the payment of ransom, stating that the police noted that it was sometimes used as a bait or bargaining chip to save the lives of victims of crime.
He said, “It is absolutely important to mention that the police do not and will not encourage payment of ransom.”
DAILY POST had reported that other suspects arrested included a dismissed soldier, Ernest Uduefe, Mohammed Abubakar, Mohammed Musa, Mohammed Sule, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Aliyu Musa and Mohammed Yusuf, who said Margaret’s kidnap was their biggest catch.
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