Gladys Nweke
The police on Sunday paraded and shared pictures of notorious kidnappers who were nabbed by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the IGP Monitoring Unit last month for the murder of a prominent staff of the NNPC.
The suspected criminals were responsible for the death of Mr. John Iheanacho, a staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State,
Despite collecting a ransom of N6million from his family, the kidnappers held the victim hostage in their camp in Afam, a community in the Oyigbo area of Rivers state, until he died from gunshot wounds.
His demise was hidden from the family about three months after his abduction until his corpse was found in a shallow grave at the camp by the police.
It was learnt that the seven-man gang had trailed a man in a Toyota Camry to an estate in Irebe, a suburb of Port Harcourt, on March 20, 2018, but missed their target.
On their return from the operation in the night, they saw Iheanacho driving into the estate and went after him in their car. The man was in front of his house when they intercepted him.
They were said to have shot him on the leg and whisked him away in his car to their camp.
TPCN gathered that they subsequently contacted the deceased’s wife and demanded a N50m ransom, which was later reduced to N6m.
We also gathered that the family reported the case to the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team as the gang failed to release the victim after the ransom was paid.
The operatives subsequently tracked down the suspects who led them to the camp where Iheanacho’s body was exhumed.
