Corporal Victor Edet, a policeman attached to Anambra State headquarters of Special Anti-Robbery
Squad, SARS, Awkuzu as at 2009, yesterday, at an Onitsha High Court, displayed the weapons of mass destruction used by a gang of armed robbers/kidnappers who abducted the chairman of GUO Motors Limited, Chief Godwin Ubaka Okeke, on Sunday, August 23, 2009.Chief Okeke was kidnapped at the All Saints Anglican Church Cathedral, Onitsha, but was released the next day after payment of N30 million ransom by his family.
Testifying before the court, presided over by Justice Alexander Okumah, in the on-going trial of three accused persons suspected to be members of the kidnap gang that abducted Okeke, Edet, who is the fifth prosecution witness, and currently attached to SARS, Kano State police command, also told the court how the police arrested some of the gangsters who kidnapped Okeke and recovered their weapons of mass destruction which were displayed before the court.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Chris Ajugwe, who is prosecuting the case with Anambra State Attorney-General’s fiat, Edet told the court that after the kidnap, a report came to the then state Commissioner of Police on October 17, 2009, that one Emeka Eze, a notorious armed robber/kidnapper who had been on police wanted list, was sighted in Asaba, Delta State.
He added that on getting the report, the police commissioner quickly set up an investigating team of policemen from SARS, including himself, and deployed them to fish out the wanted criminal sighted in Asaba.
He said in the process, a combined team of policemen and vigilante operatives, led by the late Emmanuel Ochiobi, the then Officer in-charge of SARS unit, Onitsha, swung into action and arrested Emeka Eze, a native of Nando in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State and took him to SARS headquarters, Awkuzu, where he was interrogated.
He said Emeka Eze made a confessional statement to the police, admitting that he and his gang members usually carried out armed robbery and kidnapping operations within Anambra and neighbouring states.
