‘We’ve Busted Five Serving Nigerian Soldiers, Crime Partners of Evans – Lagos State Police Command

Like a sore that refused to heal, the nightmares of Nigeria’s kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans is far from over, as new revelations are being uncovered by highly experienced Nigeria Police Force officers, trained investigators to unravel all atrocities committed by this notorious criminal. In its latest investigation, detectives and officers of Nigerian Police from Lagos Command received evidence regarding how Evans’ crime partners who are officers of Nigerian Army still in active service connived to form ‘Strike Force’, an unlawful body purposely to kidnap rich, innocent Nigerians. Also, Ghana police hierarchy had been so shocked to realize Evans, wife and children had been issued genuine Ghanaian passports under FAKE NAMES to avert easy detection by security agencies.
Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) leaving no stone unturned in this investigation had Abba Kyari, a highly trained and profoundly detailed leader of The Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) who cracked the nut to ensure the arrest of Evans that had earlier hid from the law for 7 years effect the arrest few days ago of a Nigerian soldier, while four others had been declared wanted for being members of the gang of the alleged kidnap kingpin now in police custody.
This latest revelation came on the heels of the explanation of the Lagos State Police Command as to why it is still holding Evans without charging him to court.
Addressing crime reporters in an official press statement, the Lagos State Police Command gave the name of the arrested soldier as Lance Corporal Victor Chukwunonso with Army No: 09/NA/64/6317. He was attached to the Nigeria Army Band Corps Abalti Barracks, Surulere, Lagos.
The statement reads that “Chukwunonso who is a native of Onitsha, Anambra State, was arrested in Ojo area of Lagos. He was alleged to have received various sums of money three times from Evans (N2 million, N1.5 million and N3 million) as his share of the ransoms paid by some of the victims he assisted in kidnapping.”
24 hours before this statement was issued by Lagos Police Command, a top police police source said: “Four other soldiers who were named by Evans during interrogation have been declared wanted. They have been named as the formidable forces behind his successful reign as a kidnapper.”
His words: “IRT arrested Nonso and handed him over to us. We are keeping him in our custody, but I won’t tell you where he is kept because of the sensitive nature of the case. I don’t know how you got the information, but it is true. We have a soldier in our custody; Evans named some soldiers as the ones who always accompanied his gang on each operation.
“Well, we are still conducting investigations, to unmask more persons that aided him. It is a serious issue that soldiers would be supporting evil such as kidnapping,” he said. However, the Lagos State Police Command yesterday explained why Evans had not been charged to court.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, who addressed the press said: “Evans is a special kind of criminal that needs proper debriefing. We are using him as a case study. This is a man that has committed a lot of crimes. He struck in Abuja, Anambra, Imo, South-south and South-west states. You can see the magnitude of crimes that he committed.”
Represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dansuki Galadanchi, Owoseni, stated that: “We are still studying Evans. There are more revelations and more arrests each week. You can’t just charge such crafty criminal like Evans to court. He needs more debriefing, which is what we are still doing.”
Regarding why a suspect, Emeka, earlier arrested in connection with Mr Donatus Duru’s abduction was released, “The police did not release Emeka, we charged him to court after Evans and his gang told us that they have never met him. We did identification parade and he was not identified. We also did voice analysis and experts could not identify his voice in all the telephone conversations Evans did with his phones. Evans said there was no way Emeka would have known his enclave since those who go for kidnapping did not know the place. They kidnapped and those who kept the victims would meet them on the way and pick the victims. After painstakingly interrogating Emeka and members of the gang of Evans, we found no evidence against him, but we charged him to court and the court released him. His former boss, Duru saw reasons with the court, so there was no foul play in his release.”
Further investigation by our correspondents confirmed that Nigerian Police are already in touch with other foreign security agencies through INTERPOL in Europe to help monitor, track and effect the arrests of some names revealed by Evans as co-crime partners in his kidnap business.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian Government has set up a high powered investigation committee in Accra to unravel the puzzle behind the acquisition of Ghana passports by Evans, the wife and the children.
Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration is investigating the circumstances surrounding the Ghanaian passports issued to Nigerian kidnap kingpin, Chikwudubem Onwuamadike aka Evans’ and his family.
Ghana’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Charles Owiredu told Joy News Thursday that any persons found to have played a role in the issuance, would be duly dealt with according to the law.
According to him, preliminary investigations into the matter have revealed, two children of the kidnapper received their Ghanaian passports in 2010 while the wife had hers in 2013.
He also confirmed that the arrested kidnapper was issued a passport from the Accra Passports Office on 10 January 2013 under the fake name ‘Asare Nelson’.