The arrest of a prison official in Owerri, the Imo State capital, has fuelled suspicion that kidnap kingpins run their syndicates from behind bars, OKODILI NDIDI writes
Why does kidnapping boom in the region despite a security clampdown? Many abduction kingpins are in jail or awaiting trial, but the nefarious business continues to flourish nonetheless. Not too long ago, the Imo State police command, under the new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Taiwo Lakanu, arrested a sizeable number of suspected kidnappers who are awaiting trial at the Owerri Prisons.
Considered a major breakthrough was the arrest by the Department for State Security (DSS) of one of the most wanted trans-border kidnap suspects, Henry Chibueze, known as Vampire. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Andrew Enwerem said that in the last one month, the police have over 49 kidnap suspects in custody apart from those already charged to court.
Vampire’s arrest was celebrated within government and security circles because it was assumed that kidnapping in the Southeast will drastically drop, if not end.
Not so. More people are still kidnapped on a daily basis in the zone with millions of naira extorted as ransom from families of victims, who are sometimes killed even after paying the ransom.
The reason for this, according to The Nation findings, is that imprisoned kidnap kingpins still plan and execute operations from their cells with the aid of wardens acting as go-between.
These criminal-minded prison officials are said provide the kidnappers with phones and sometimes take their messages directly to their members and assist them in collecting and depositing their shares of ransom money in banks.
Recently, a warden in Owerri Prisons, Agim Nnadozie, was arrested by members of the IG Special Squad for facilitating kidnap operations for Vampire and his gang.
A reliable security source, who pleaded anonymity, told The Nation that some of the kingpins were allowed prohibited privileges by corrupt wardens who are heavily compensated.
According to the source, some of them are allowed to visit their homes and socialise with their gang members at night, which give them the opportunity to regroup and plan the next operations.
The source said, “The big boys, as the kingpins are called in the prison, are still running their syndicates with the help of corrupt prison officials. The recent arrest has just confirmed that but more needs to be done because it is a very large network and by the time further investigations are carried out it will shock everybody”.
Another police source who also did not want to be mentioned said that, “it is frustrating that after what we go through to arrest the notorious kidnappers, prison officials still collaborate with them to continue with their nefarious activities behind walls.
“The courts, including lawyers and judges are not helping matters. They employ all tactics to free known and confessed kidnappers and there is little or nothing that the police can do about it because ours is to arrest and charge to court and what happens thereafter is little of our business”.
However the Controller of Prisons in Imo State, Mr. Isaiah Amaliri, who confirmed the arrest of one of his men in connection with aiding kidnappers, said that, “other security operatives are involved in the crime too it is not only Prison officials”.
Meanwhile decrying the situation the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, said, “It is worrisome that these criminal elements can now make calls in prisons and contact their gang members and even coordinate operations.
