A 40-year-old woman, Mrs Joy Sunday, who was arrested by the Akwa Ibom Police Command for conspiracy over the kidnap of her husband, on Friday, opened up on why she masterminded her partner’s abduction.
She said she involved herself in the act because her husband had starved her of sex and money for too long.
It was gathered that the kidnappers demanded N10m as ransom and later reduced it to N2m which was paid before the police arrested them at the point of sharing the loot, the PUNCH reported on Friday.
The suspect, who was among 29 others paraded for various offences including kidnapping, robbery and child theft by the State Commissioner of Police, Olatoye Durosinmi, said she had been subjected to doing all sorts of manual jobs to fend for herself and the children since her husband got married to another woman.
She added that when one of her children finished secondary education, there was no money to send him for further studies.
She said, “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 inlaws were alive he abandoned me. He never cared for his children. I engaged in menial jobs such as weeding on people’s farms to feed my 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. The major reason i arranged for his kidnapping is that my husband refused to have sex with me and does not take care of me and the children.”
She disclosed that she never collected her share of the money before they were arrested by the police
“The kidnapper that collected the ransom of N2million never gave my share and I don’t even see the money. It was when the kidnappers were sharing the N2m 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) identified as Udo Moji assured me that he would collect the money from my husband for me since my husband attacked me and poured soup on me. So, I agreed with him and he kidnapped my husband. I ran around to gather money to pay the kidnappers. The main suspect, Udo moji ran away.
Narrating his ordeal, the husband of the suspect, Mr. Emmanuel Sampson Ebong, who hailed from Ntak Obio Akpa in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of the state said, “I was kidnapped on July 21, 2022 in my compound.
“I came back from where I went for treatment because I was weak. Around 8.30pm, I saw about six people in my compound. They struggled with me and fired two gunshots into the air, I struggled with them before they took me out of my compound in a minibus and drove away.
He added, “They kept me from that Thursday till Sunday and demanded N10m from me and later reduced it to N2m before the police came that day, If not for God, they would have killed me.
“They took me to Etinan where they kept me. I thank the Nigeria Police for the rescue operations. 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.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of police, Olatoye Durosinmi, while parading the suspects vowed that his command would not leave any stone unturned to ensure that residents of the state sleep with their eyes closed.
