Councillor’s wife rescued from kidnappers’ den, N1.3m recovered

 BY EMMA ARUBI

WARRI-POLICEMEN from the Sapele Division in Delta State, in collaboration with Mr. Michael Diden,  Special Adviser to Governor Uduaghan on Security, weekend,  stormed the hideout of a kidnapping syndicate at Ugbolode and rescued the abducted wife of a local government area councillor, Mrs Toyin Oritsejafor.

The security operatives also recovered the sum of 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  Tuesday last week, abducted by some gun wielding youths in Sapele in the presence of her husband, Mr Solomon Oritsejafor, a councilor in Warri North Local Government Area, 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.

The hoodlums demanded an undisclosed sum of money, running into millions of naira and negotiation began until they accepted a ransom payment of N2million for her release.

According to a member of the Delta Waterways Security Committee, Mr. Omolubi Newuwumi, 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.  

Omolubi said four more  members of the gang were arrested on Saturday while the leader again succeeded in escaping but his wife was arrested while four guns and three Okada (motorbike) used for their nefarious operations were recovered from his house after a thorough search.