Detailed report on the kidnap of HRH, Eze Francis Igwe:
As Narrated by Sir Chika Nwoba
He was attending an Assemblies of God church close to his palace in Ikwo when a syndicate of gunmen assailed and picked him and zoomed off to a location in Izziㅡa community under Abakaliki LGA where they kept him. There was no security hiccup as they headed for their camp using a tricycle ㅡ keke-napep. The kidnap happened last Sunday.
The man who was 80-something years of age, was a member of the Enugu State House of Assembly before 1996 that Ebonyi was created. He was the father of the immediate past deputy governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Barr Kelechi Igwe, PhD and father-in-law to the current chairman of Ikwo LGA, Chief Barr Sunday Nwankwo as well as the traditional ruler of Ndufu-Alike community, Ikwo LGA. A representative of Ikwo stakeholders approached and reported the incident to “Ili Noyo” ㅡ a deity owned by Ikwo clan. The kidnappers made a phone call to the family requesting that they be given N500K to get drugs for him. They provided a Zenith bank account for the transaction.
The transaction was made. A query was placed on the account, necessitating the owner to go to bank and sort it out. He was captured. During interrogation, he admitted that it was Sinbad Ogbuatu the current APC state publicity secretary in Ebonyi that contacted him to provide an account number for the transaction. Sinbad was arrested and queried. Sinbad said that it was one of his boys that told him to look for a bank account to receive the money. Rather than providing his own account, he looked for another person’s, knowing full well how dangerous the transaction seemed. He was used to lure the boy he called his boy. The two of them came to answer the call of Sinbad their boss unbeknownst to them the danger looming. They were captured and asked the whereabouts of the man. They said that the man died in their custody. They led security operatives to where they kept him. His decomposing corpse was exhumed and deposited in a morgue in Abakaliki. Police will arraign the seven of them including Sinbad next week.
The above was what happened.
Sir Chika Nwoba wrote.
