Kidnappers received N12.5m on abducted monarch – SSS

The State Security Service (SSS) said on Monday the family of the kidnapped monarch of Ogbogoro Community in Bayelsa State, Godwin Igbodo, paid N12.5 million ransom to secure his release. The Assistant Director of the SSS, Mr. Didacus Egbedi, made the disclosure while parading one of the suspected kidnappers, Promise Adeghe, at the command’s headquarters in Yenagoa. Egbedi said that the suspect, a native of Azuzuama in the Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area was arrested few days ago in Yenagoa in connection with the abduction. He disclosed that Igodo was released on the September 27 at Abonema River in the Abonema Local Government Area of Rivers, after the payment of N12.5 million ransom and recharge cards worth N150, 000 by family members. “Adeghe had collected the sum of N50, 000 as initial payment from the ransom and was to collect the balance when he returns to Port Harcourt; unfortunately he was arrested before his intended return to Port Harcourt,“ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the SSS official as saying during the parade. According to Egbedi, the suspect would be arraigned in court on Tuesday.