Kelvin Oniarah Ezigbe and his gang members during one of their outings in Kokori town, Ethiope east LGA of Delta state
Photo credit: The Nation
Kelvin Oniarah Ezigbe, a convicted kidnapper who abducted Mike Ozekhome, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in 2013, has had his jail term reduced under the presidential pardon announced by President Bola Tinubu.
Ezigbe was among the 175 persons who recently received a presidential pardon and other forms of clemency following the approval of the national council of state.
Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said in a statement on Saturday that the 20-year prison term of Ezigbe was reduced to 13 years “for showing remorsefulness and attending the National Open University”.
Before his arrest in 2013, Ezigbe was a notorious criminal who terrorised Delta state and its environs, especially the people of Kokori in Ethiope east LGA.
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He had executed high-profile kidnappings like the abduction of Ozekhome alongside his driver on August 23, 2013, at the Ehor stretch of the Benin-Auchi highway, Edo state.
Four police officers who responded to Ozekhome’s abduction were ambushed and killed by Ezigbe’s team.
His gang was reportedly responsible for the abduction of Hope Eghagha, a former commissioner of higher education in Delta, in September 2012 while driving from Warri to Asaba.
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Eghagha’s police orderly was killed during the attack.
His men also killed two prison officials in Delta while in a vehicle with some arrested members of the gang.
In September 2013, a combined team of army and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested Ezigbe and five of his gang members in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
Ezigbe, who described himself as a freedom fighter, was arrested one week after he issued an ultimatum to the federal and state governments to develop Kokori, an oil-rich community in Delta state.
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In June 2024, Ezigbe was arraigned alongside some members of his gang for “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, kidnapping of persons, inciting persons to commit acts of terrorism, recruitment and abetting escape”.
During the trial at the federal high court in Abuja, Ozekhome told the court that he was held hostage for three weeks and was only released after he paid a N40 million ransom.
In October 2023, Binta Nyako, the trial judge, convicted Ezigbe and Frank Azuekor, a member of the gang, for the charges preferred against them.
Nyako sentenced Ezigbe and Azuekor to 20 years’ imprisonment each. The prison term was to start on the date of their arrest in 2013.
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