Police parade DSS official, three others for alleged kidnapping

The Cross River State Police Command has paraded an official of the Department of State Security (DSS) and three others including a female for alleged kidnapping in the state.

During a briefing with newsmen in Calabar on Thursday, the Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo said:

“Ogar Bassey, M reported at Uwanse Police Station that unknown men came to their house, abducted his two brothers, Isaac Sampson, M, 21 years and Brown Irek Ofadim, M, 23 years to an unknown destination.

“Through intelligence-led policing, the suspects were trailed to Atimbo where they were arrested. One Toyota Camry Car, CAL 237 CG, one Jackknife and assorted phones were recovered. Investigations are ongoing.

“These suspects went to a certain house and kidnapped the brothers of Mr Robert Bassey and demanded a ransom of N250,000 if not the victim would be killed”

One of the suspect, Eyo Edet Okon who spoke to journalists denied involvement in the alleged kidnap saying:

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“We went to Robert Bassey’s house to ask him for our money, he promised to help and give us admission in Unical, he collected N107,000 from me, and he collected N48,000 from my sister which was looking for a change of course, nothing was done and our money was not given back to us.

“We have gone to him several times begging him to return our money and he kept on posting us and sometimes, he will say he will meet the head of the department. On Sunday, I went to him and asked him for the money and he promised to give us but did not. My parents are aware of this and more so, I am a member of Jehovah Witnesses.

“On Wednesday, we met our DSS friend and told him everything about the matter and he asked us if we have attempted to make peace with him, we said yes but he has refused to give us our money. We requested for DSS to invite him to their office for questioning but since we could not lay our hands on him, we now invited his two brothers who came with us to DSS and the DSS interrogated them and asked us to return them since they were not the person who owed us.

“On our way to return them, the man that owed us called one of them and spoke in their language and the DSS man asked him to bring in our money, he however arranged with the Police and alleged that we are kidnappers. We want justice to be done; the man should be interrogated to know the truth” he pleaded.

Ugbo added that a letter had been written to the DSS personnel’s organization to determine if his position was true or false.

By Todimu Ogunade…

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