TheCable

Festus Keyamo, a human rights lawyer, has written a petition to Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police (IGP),  accusing one Ndifreke Ntafiong, a police officer, of plotting with some hoodlums to kidnap a woman in Delta state.

The victim is the wife of Ovwighodua Odebala, a businessman in the state.

In the petition, the lawyer quoted his client as saying that he was asked to pay some ransom before his wife was kidnapped.

Odebala said when he refused to make the payment, the police officer told him clearly that if anything happened to him or members of his family in Sapele, he would be on his own.

“The wife was then kidnapped three days after the police officer had allegedly demanded the ransom, specifically on March 22 earlier this year,” the petition read.

“This particular officer is notorious in that division for demanding monies with threats from prominent people in that area.

“The kidnappers kept Prince Odebala’s wife from 22nd March, till 31st March when she was eventually released after payment of a ransom of N5m. However, the initial sum demanded was N40m before it was later reduced.

“Whilst in the kidnappers’ den, the kidnappers informed our client’s wife that her husband has so much money that he even bought phones for his girlfriends. They mentioned the dates of the purchases. Incidentally, these are facts known only to one Joel Enajiro who was close confidant of Prince Odebala.

“It was then that our client suspected that Mr. Joel Enajiro (who was with him when he bought the said phone) was a party to the plot along with the police officer who threatened him.

“That when our client reported the issue of the kidnaping of his wife to the divisional police officer (DPO) of Sapele police division, the officer swiftly acted and took him to the commissioner of police, Delta state.”

Keyamo said that upon learning about the incident, the commissioner has called Ntafiong “and simply asked him to go and release our client’s wife”.

“Our client was amazed that even the Commissioner knew the involvement of this police officer in this crime but could treat such a serious matter with kid’s glove. Ndifreke Ntafiong was detained shortly and thereafter released,” he said.

After his release, he had reportedly informed Odebala to go and withdraw the complaint against him “before his wife would be released,” a move to which Odebala declined.

The letter noted that it was shortly after the release of the police officer that the kidnappers called to reduce the ransom to the sum of N5m.

The matter was then taken to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad ( SARS) in Abuja where it was assigned to one Vincent, a police officer in the IGP IRT unit of SARS.

“But they have since been surreptitiously released with the connivance of the police officers,” the lawyers wrote.

“The lives of Odebala and his wife are now in danger as her captors are now roaming free again with the connivance of the police.

“It is in the light of the above that we write to express our client’s reservation on the mode of investigation being carried out by the police thus far.

“We hereby request that a fresh investigation be ordered into this incident directly from your office to forestall any cover-up.”