Photo: The suspect and accomplices paraded by the police in Uyo on Friday
The Police Command in Akwa Ibom has arrested a 40 year-old woman, Mrs Joy Sunday for kidnapping her husband and collecting N2 million as ransom.
The Akwa Ibom Commissioner of Police, Olatoye Durosinmi, confirmed this while parading 30 suspects for various offences in Ikot Akpanabia, Uyo on Friday.
Durosinmi explained that Mrs Sunday was one of the suspects paraded.
The suspect said she was forced to kidnap her husband, Mr Emmanuel Ebong, an indigene of Ntak Obio Akpa in Oruk Anam Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom because he starved her of sex and abandoned his children.
She said she was subjected to engage in all sorts of menial jobs to fend for herself and her children when her husband married another woman.
She noted that the situation forced her to arrange for his kidnapping to get money and to take care of the children.
According to her, unfortunately she was not given the ransom money after the abduction was successful.
“I arranged for my husband’s kidnapping because for a long time, he had abandoned me with his children. Even when my father and mother in-laws were alive he abandoned me. He never cared for his children.
“I engaged in menial jobs such as weeding in people’s farm to feed his children and pay their school fees.
“One of the children finished from secondary school and I approached my husband to plan how to send the son to learn trade since the father refused to send him to university but my husband shunned me.
“But the major reason is that my husband refused to have sex with me and does not take care of me and the children.
“The kidnappers that collected the ransom of N2 million never gave my share and I didn’t even see the money.
“It was when the kidnappers were appropriating the N2 million that the police arrested them and they mentioned me. They never gave me any part of the ransom collected from my husband.
“The kidnap kingpin (now at large) known as Udo assured me that he would collect the money from my husband for me since my husband attacked me and poured away my soup in the pot.
“So, I agreed with him and he kidnapped my husband. I ran around to gather money to pay the kidnappers. The main suspect, Udo ran away,” she stated.
Ebong said he was kidnapped on Thursday, July 21, in his compound.
He stated that he just returned from treating an ailment when the kidnappers entered his compound and took him away, adding that he was fortunate that the Police came to his rescue.
“I came back from treatment because I was weak. Around 8.30pm, I saw about 6 persons entered into my compound.
“They struggled with me and released two gun shots into the atmosphere in my compound.
“They took me out of my compound in a mini bus and drove away. They kept me from that Thursday till Sunday, July and demanded N10 million from me and later reduced it to N2 million.
“They took me me to Etinan where they caged me. I thank the Nigeria Police for the rescue operations because If not God, they would have killed me. I also thank my Village Head. I don’t know the reason they kidnapped me.
“They collected N2m from me. The police later recovered over N500,000 from them.
Durosinmi said the police would leave no stone unturned to nip criminals in the state.
