Joy Anyim
Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police’s Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), have arrested a 36-year-old mother of three, Chizoba Ogbonna, for staging her own kidnap.
The suspect, a native of Osisioma, in Abia State, was arrested in Abiriba, Ohafia area of the state.
Ogbonna, a graduate of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State, was arrested alongside two others, Uche Anthony and Joseph Ezema, who reportedly assisted her in staging the kidnap as well as negotiating her ransom.
The bubble burst after the said abductors of Ogbonna had requested for a N2 million ransom.
While the family had begged to make a part payment of N500,000, the abductors had given Ogbonna’s account number to pay in the ransom.
It was learnt that one of Ogbonna’s relatives had alerted the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Adamu Mohammed, about her abduction and the subsequent demand for N2 million as ransom, stating that her kidnappers had threatened to kill her within hours if their demands were not met.
The IGP had immediately deployed a crack team of operatives from the IRT, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, to track and apprehend the suspects.
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The operatives, who were armed with advance tracking devices, trailed Ogbonna and her supposed kidnappers to an uncompleted building at Agborji community in Abiriba-Ohafia area of Abia State.
The mission was to rescue the victim and arrest the suspects, but the story became different when the IRT operatives on the rescue operation got to the scene, to discover that Ogbonna was having a romantic affair with one of her supposed kidnappers.
It was also gathered that her abduction was staged so as to extort money from her relatives which, she intended using in traveling out of the country with her boyfriend.
To cover her up the criminal act, Ogbonna had denied staging her kidnap, stressing that she was hypnotised, whisked away in a vehicle and later found herself in the home of her boyfriend, Joseph Ezema.
She also claimed that Ezema contacted her family and demanded for the ransom.
According to her, “I am a primary school teacher, but I was formerly married and I had three children with my former husband, but I didn’t love him and it was as if he held me with a charm. I left the marriage when I realised myself.
“In 2018, I met Joseph on Facebook and he told me he was a fashion designer and I told him that I had some jobs for him.
“From that point we started a relationship. At one point in our relationship we discussed about traveling out of the country and he told me that he had once spent around N300,000 for a travelling visa and it didn’t work out for him.
“So, on March 13, 2019, I was on my way to visit my sister and a vehicle stopped in front of me.
“I saw six persons in the vehicle and a lady inside the vehicle called me and when I responded, she asked me to enter the vehicle.
“Entering the vehicle, I lost control of myself. I later found myself in the home of my boyfriend, in Agborji.
“My boyfriend took my phone and called my sister and started demanding for ransom and when my sister spoke with me, I begged her to pay the ransom my boyfriend was demanding.
“I then sent my account number to my sister and she paid N500,000 into the account.
“Two days after the money was paid, the police came and arrested me and my boyfriend,” she stated
The 30-year-old Ezema, in his confessional statement, debunked Ogbonna’s claims that she was hypnotised and kidnapped.
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He narrated how he met her and how she brought the idea of kidnap so she could raise money that they would both use in travelling out of the country.
The fashion designer said, “I have just a Secondary School Leaving Certificate and I am not married and I don’t have children.
“I was arrested because I faked the kidnap of my girlfriend. I met her sometime in April 2018.
“She is one of my friends on Facebook and she was always commenting on my photos and we started chatting and then we started dating.
“She told me that she was a divorcee and that her husband used to beat her and he wasn’t allowing her to have friends.
“She said there was also a day the man came home with another woman and everything became complicated for her. Then she decided to move out of her husband’s house.
“She said she rented an apartment with one of her child. So, when we started dating, I paid a visit to her house with one of my friends, Anthony, and I told her that I was planning to travel out of the country and she said she wanted to travel with me.
“But I told her that I don’t have such money. So, she told me that she would want me to kidnap her and call and demand ransom from her sister, who is rich.
“She said we will use the money and travel out of the country. We then traveled back to my town in Abriba and she came with a blue phone with two SIM cards.
“Two days later, she covered her phone with a cloth and called her sister, pretending to be a kidnapper and she informed her sister that she had been kidnapped and she demanded for ransom.
“Later on, she got scared and thought that her sister would recognise her voice. Then my friend, Anthony, took over the phone and he started negotiating with her sister. “After two weeks of negotiations, her family paid N300,000 into her account and she asked me to be patient that more money will be paid into her account.
“ So, on the day we were arrested, her family paid an additional N200,000 into her account and they said that was all they could afford and she gave me N100,000 as my share but the police came and arrested me.
“When I was arrested, I told the police that I am not a kidnapper, and that it was my girlfriend who lured me into trouble.”
