How kidnappers took over Sapele

By EMMA AMAIZE, Regional Editor, South-South & GODWIN OGHRE
AN old resident of Sapele in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State told Vanguard, last week, a story of how a criminal that is trained in Sapele would always outclass his colleague elsewhere, no matter the circumstance, simply because he is Sapele-trained.

There is no logic in the hypothesis, but with what kidnapping has been turned into in the timber city, you need no more substantiation.

In the beginning, June 15, 2007, when two Indians, Murughan Gopal and Anthony Marian,  working for an Oghara-based rubber firm were kidnapped at Akintola Junction, Sapele by profit-making militants, barely two weeks after Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan assumed office during his first tenure,  many thought it was a rude joke, as the Delta Waterways Security Committee, DWSC, just inaugurated by the governor, stormed the camp of the militants to secure the release of the victims, and later in collaboration with the Joint Task Force, JTF, Niger Delta, entrapped two of  the kidnappers.

The rate of kidnapping is, however, alarming at the moment. Worried by the menace, women in Sapele, were said to have protested naked, last month, in the dark hours to demand an end to criminality in the land. The women numbering over 100 marched through various streets, invoking curses on kidnappers and their sponsors.

The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Sapele chapter also held a protest rally in the state. The body condemned the kidnap of Barrister Young Odebala, father of the former commissioner in the state, Barrister Ejafe Odebala. The team of lawyers, led by its chairman, Barrister Dennis Ugbong, marched through the Reclamation Road to Ekpe Hill, and later to Sapele Police Station, carrying placards with the inscription ‘lawyers don’t pay ransom,’ ‘kidnapping na bad thing.’

At the end, they appealed to the police to tighten security in the area. But, Sapele kidnappers seemed to have gone for tutorials after the 2007 incident, as they returned with  uncommon vigour, May, 2009, abducting a former chairman of the local government and current majority leader of the Delta State House of Assembly, Chief  Monday Ovwigho Igbuya, Coincidentally, Igbuya on Akintola Road, same area the two Indians were kidnapped in 2007.

Specifically, he was seized from his campaign headquarters at 73 Akintola Road, Sapele, at about 9.30 pm. He was released after some ransom was paid. As if signaling that they meant business, kidnappers, three months after, August 21, 2009, abducted Mrs. Mary Diden, wife of a former Special Adviser to the Delta State Governor on Security Matters.

Her husband, Michael Diden, was the former chairman of Warri North local government area, Delta State. She was kidnapped by a gang of four kidnappers at about 7.00 pm along the Sapele-Warri Road, Sapele.

Mrs.Wawa, the wife of a Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, staff was also kidnapped by gunmen, who dragged her out through window of the family’s Ugberikoko abode in Sapele. In all the cases, the kidnappers demanded ransom. Three years after what was regarded as a joke started, Sapele kidnappers have graduated to a national status.

Their accomplices in other states were even retreating to the town, now regarded as a safe haven. It was in Sapele that the abduction of Madam Omofenwa Jimoh, the mother of billionaire businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim at Igbotako, Ondo State, early this year, was coordinated. Mr. Ibrahim said the kidnappers made their first call to his phone via a text message “Your Mama” last Wednesday about 4 p.m.

He said: “It was on Thursday they asked for immediate payment of N370 million. I asked them: ‘How will you carry the money?’

They cut the phone and on Friday, they came forward with some U.S. dollars demand. They asked us to bring the money to Shagamu, when we got there; they said we should move to Okada Junction at Benin. I came out of my car so they could see me. From Okada Junction, they asked us to go to Sapele and from there to Ughelli Junction.

They released mama about 11.30 p.m. on Sunday. They gave my phone number to her and asked her to give it to anyone who can call me. We got the call about 11.48 p.m. on Sunday and we proceeded to Sapele, Gana Market and got mama at 4.45 a.m. on Monday morning.”

Sapele based hostage takers

Some months ago, the old mother of Chief Ighoyota Amori, the Senior Political Adviser to Governor Uduaghan was kidnapped from her home by the Sapele-based hostage takers. Chief Amori refused to fall for their ransom, but he sure parted with money for her release. In February, two hotel proprietors, Mr. Benjamin Ogeregbaje, alias Apolo and Mr. Sam Akpeteyetan were kidnapped and mouth-watering ransom collected before they were freed.

On Wednesday May 18, 2011, Barrister Young Odebala was kidnapped. He was released after four days of negotiation with his captors. Of course, ransom was paid. In the same month, the wife of Mr. Solomon Oritsejafor, a former councillor in Warri North Local Government Council was kidnapped. Reports said the police from the Sapele Division, in collaboration with a Special Adviser on Security,

Mr. Diden, whose wife was kidnapped in 2009, stormed the hideout of a kidnapping syndicate at Ugbolode and rescued the abducted wife of the councillor, Mrs Toyin Oritsejafor. The security operatives also recovered N1.3million ransom collected by the kidnappers at the point of sharing, just as five of them were arrested on the spot.

Mrs. Oritsejafor, was abducted by some gun wielding youths in Sapele in the presence of her husband, who struggled without success with the kidnappers and was given the beating of his life.The hoodlums shot sporadically to scare off residents before Mrs  Oritsejafor was taken to an unknown destination.

A member of the Delta Waterways Security Committee, Mr. Omolubi Newuwumi, said they spread their security network around and were able to locate the position of the kidnappers and arrangement was made with the hoodlums on where to deposit the agreed ransom.

He said Mr. Diden and his boys then went to work and trailed the kidnappers from the point of collecting the money to their hideout, after which security operatives were deployed to the hideout where they were busy counting their loot and five of them were rounded up while some others escaped.

Though, Sapele is not the only town kidnappers are operating in Delta State, it has become one of the most dangerous cities for the inhabitants and a haven for profitmaking hostage takers.