The Intelligence Response Team (IRT) agents have detained two convicts who broke out of the Owerri Correctional Institution after they were suspected of being involved in a recent kidnapping, armed robbery, and car theft.
The kidnapping of a female lawyer in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, is reportedly orchestrated and engaged in by the accused Okechu Edison, 42, and Sunny Morison.
The pair allegedly spent 11 years in prison while they awaited their trial before breaking out of jail on April 5.
They were reportedly detained for kidnapping and armed robbery many years ago, and following their court appearances, they were remanded in custody.
They were reportedly detained for kidnapping and armed robbery many years ago, and following their court appearances, they were remanded in custody.
Three days after they had successfully carried out the kidnapping operation, on November 10, near Rumuola Junction, it was reported that agents had captured them.
It was discovered that their arrest came as a result of information the elite squad got on the abduction of the female lawyer who was ambushed along Igwuruta road in Port Harcourt as she was exiting a store.
The two reportedly took N5 million from the lawyer’s account while she was being held in jail at an unfinished building in Eneka, a semi-urban neighborhood in Port Harcourt City, together with other gang members.
Both suspects are residents of Rumuji in Rivers State. According to the suspect, who spoke to the DCP Tunji Disu-led IRT, they turned to abduction again after their illicit bunkering sites were demolished by armed troops.
They admitted that they left the prison when dynamite-wielding attackers stormed it on April 5.
They informed the police that after several armed troops entered and destroyed the oil bunkering site they were using to make a livelihood after they escaped from jail, they turned to abduction, armed robbery, and car theft.
In his admission to the police, Edison said that his townsman, 25-year-old Chukwuemeka Onu, organized the location where they detained the attorney, and that he also instructed Onu to find a secure location for their victim.
He said that the reason he was initially imprisoned for abduction was because he had lent his automobile to his roommate Emmanuel, who was afterwards detained and accused of kidnapping.
Onu, however, said that Edison had requested him to find a secure site for his illegal bunkering equipment and denied knowing that the woman was a kidnapping victim.
It was discovered that one of the suspects acknowledged to having spent 14 years in the Owerri Correctional Center while awaiting trial, only for his case to be transferred to a different judge just before the escape.
According to information obtained, the IRT was investigating the suspects’ participation in more crimes while efforts were being made to apprehend other gang members.
(NATION)
