Evans and others in court
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja High Court on Monday sentenced
two former gang-members of the notorious kidnap Kingpin, Chukwudimeme
Onwuamadike, alias Evans to 41 years in prison, Nigerian Tribune
reports.
The convicts: Kelvin Emenike Ukoh, 32 and Emeka Obasi, 33 were
jailed for the kidnap of one Mr Ugoje Jude, a shipping agent, and his
staff, Miss Piriye Gogo on August 3, 2012, at about 9 pm, a kidnap
operation which Evans also reportedly participated in.
The convicts were arraigned sometimes in 2013 alongside three
others: Uche Igbani, 28, Chibuzor Osuagwu, 33 and a 36-year-old woman,
Onowu Ngozi, on a 14 count-charge bothering on conspiracy, kidnapping,
armed robbery and murder.
TribuneOnline recalls that a 34-year-old Director with Ocean Glory,
Paul Cole, was kidnapped on August 3rd, 2012, at Festac Town, alongside
his General Manager, Jude Ugoje, and another staff, Piriye Gogo, and
taken to an unknown destination by Evans and his gang members.
Narrating her ordeal, before the court, Miss Gogo said that the
three men accosted them with rifles on their way home and that she was
almost raped inside the car, but was saved by her monthly menstrual
period.
Gogo, during her evidence-in-chief, said that during the abduction,
one of the kidnappers, Obasi, came into the car, after dragging her
boss out for negotiation at an undisclosed location, and started
fondling with her breast.
“He came into the car, tore my clothes, pulled down a side of
my bra and began caressing my breast. He thereafter started dragging
down my shirt and I began begging him. I begged him until I had nothing
else I could plead with. I begged him intensely for mercy and even told
him that I was menstruating.
“It was as though all my pleas fail on deaf ears, I had to
insert my hand into my vagina just to show him. The blood I showed him
prevented him from raping me. It was a terrible experience.
” He thereafter asked whether Mr Jude was the owner of the
company. And I replied that we were just clearing agents. They also
seized our mobile phones, jewellery and money.
“They blindfolded Mr Jude, brought him back into the car, asked
me to face down with my eyes closed, and then drove off to another
location. They spoke Igbo almost all the time so I could barely
understand what they were saying or taking us to.
“While driving off to the other location, they asked if I could
drive, I said no. So they dropped down from the car and took Mr Jude
with them. They ordered me to face down and not look at their faces or I
will be shot dead. They abandoned me and the Honda pilot car at 2nd
bridge alongside Expressway, where I waited until I saw a police patrol
and flagged them.
“I narrated what happened to them and the immediately radioed Festac Police station,” she said.
Mr Jude, who also testified before the court, said that his
abductors initially ordered him to pay N10m for his release but after
much negotiations, they collected N5m.
Justice Taiwo convicted and sentenced Ukoh and Obasi to 5, 15 and
21 years for conspiracy, kidnapping and armed robbery respectively,
while the other three were discharged and acquitted by court.
Justice Taiwo said that the prosecution could not prove beyond
reasonable doubt the nexus linking the other three: Igbani, Osuagwu,
Ngozi to the alleged charges of murder, conspiracy, Kidnapping and armed
robbery.
The judge also noted that the prosecution could not present any
evidence of murder as charged against all the defendants, aside from
their confessional statements.
While Igbani and Osuagwu claimed they were arrested on their way to
work, Ngozi said that Udoh, her brother’s friend, brought police to her
house to arrest her brother, who was at large but now deceased.
Ngozi claimed that when the police couldn’t find her brother, she was arrested instead.