Personnel of the Delta State Police Command have apprehended a suspected cultist also said to be a member of a syndicate of notorious kidnappers.
This emanated due to investigation of the murder of one Regina Ogana, who was kidnapped alongside her husband and other members of her family on August 2, 2023.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the state command, DSP Bright Edafe, revealed this on Sunday, August 13, in a signed statement made available to newsmen in Warri.
Edafe noted that the Command received another distress call from the husband of the deceased that one of his brothers, Eseoghene Ezekiel Obeje, aged 28, made a suspicious call to him that he was kidnapped and that the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of N500,000 and money was transferred into the said Eseoghene’s account as his ransom.
Consequently, the Commissioner of Police, CP Wale Abass, gave a marching order to the Divisional Police Officer Oreropke, to embark on an intelligence-led investigation and ensure that the perpetrators were arrested.
The PPRO stated that following the CP’s order, on August 11, 2023, at about 1145 hrs acting on technically generated information, operatives of the Divisional Anti-Crime Patrol team led by the DPO CSP Paul E. Oboware stormed Odovie community, Ughelli North LGA and arrested the said Eseoghene Ezekiel Obeje at the same spot where the sum of N1,300,000.00 was earlier paid as ransom for the release of his elder brother and husband of the deceased.
According to the police spokesman, investigation revealed that the said Eseoghene is a member of Eiye Confraternity and that he faked his own kidnap and is also suspected to have masterminded the kidnap of his brother and other family members which led to the death of Regina Ogana.
It was reported that the suspect is currently in custody while an investigation is ongoing.
