CONFESSION: We Collected N12m Ransom For The Kidnap of Okonjo-Iweala’s Mother

27-year-old Peter Nweke, on Monday, admitted that his gang was paid N12m ransom when they abducted Prof. Kamene Okonjo back in 2013. A statement from the police in Enugu said Nweke, who hails from Umumba Ndiagu in Ezeagu LGA of Enugu State, made the disclosure during interrogation.

The suspect said that he was contacted by one Ifeanyi Chukwuemeka from Iselle Uku in Delta who linked him to one of the Okonjo’s family members that helped them to perfect the kidnap.

He said that Chukwuemeka disguised as a corps member seeking for assistance and entered the compound and made away with the mother of former finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Nweke also told the police that his gang abducted a pastor’s wife and her friend as well as their driver in the Oji River area of Enugu last October. He said they demanded N4m but later got N1.12m from the victim.

The statement, signed by the spokesman of Enugu police command, Ebere Amaraizu, said the anti-kidnap unit of the command arrested the suspect who escaped to Cotonou after the kidnap of Okonjo.

It said that the suspect resurfaced in 2015 with another gang which included Ifeanyi Chukwuemeka and Ali Salli from Adamawa, both residing in Sabon Kashua area of Asaba in Delta State. The bad guy said he had been in kidnapping business for four years, adding that poverty drove him into the crime.

“I needed money to acquire AK-47 and pump action gun from one Musa from Adamawa at Sabon Kashua, Asaba through one of his cohorts, Ali Sali to make the business easier,” Nweke said.

Peter Nweke, however, pleaded for forgiveness while advising youths to shun crime as it was an ill wind.