By Desire Emmanuel
A 60-year-old man is currently giving police details of how he received the sum of N21 million in his bank account which was deposited after he gave his account number to some kidnappers.
The Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Police Command, Bright Edafe, announced the arrest of the man and the kidnappers that demanded for the money, saying during their arrest, the sum of N4.5 million out of the N21 million was recovered from them.
Edafe, in a video posted where he interrogated them, gave the name of the receiver of the money simply as Cyprian, as he said the victim was abducted on October 3 in Asaba, the state capital, by the kidnappers who came from Ihiala in Anambra State.
When Edafe asked Cyprian why he gave his account number to kidnappers, he said when he attended a community meeting, one of the kidnappers came to him and convinced him to give them his account number for some money that they are expecting, promising that he would get out of it.
Based on this, Cyprian said he gave the kidnapper the number, adding that he never knew the money being expected by them was for ransom.
“He came to me at the community gathering and said someone wanted to send money to him, that I should help him by allowing the person to put the money in my account. Because I was familiar with him, I agreed, but I was shocked when I received money totalling N21 million in the account,” Cyprian said.
He disclosed that out of the N21 million paid into his bank account, he has so far withdrawn N7 million and had given it to the kidnappers, adding that he was told to be giving them the money in bits.
He stated that he regretted what he did, adding that if the guy that demanded for his account had told him what the money was about, he would never have agreed to give out his bank account.
The man that demanded for the account number, who gave his name as Sunday Onwa, disclosed that when he asked for the man’s account number, he promised to give him the sum of N200,000 for allowing the money to be deposited in the account.
Edafe said following intelligence reports gathered, the operatives of the command stormed their hideout in Ihiala and arrested some of the kidnappers while efforts are being intensified to arrest the fleeing members of the gang.
