Tag: Evans

Alleged kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike alias Evans yesterday narrated to an Ikeja high court how he was allegedly tortured by members of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Evans narrated his experience during the continuation of a trial-within-trial at an Ikeja High Court where he is facing trial on a two-count charge conspiracy and kidnapping.

He is facing trial before Justice Hakeem Oshodi alongside five other members of his gang.

Before Evans’ testimony, a five-minute-33-second video recording was played in the courtroom.

The video recording showed Inspector Idowu Haruna, a member of the IGP Intelligence Response Team, sitting beside Evans, cautioning him and taking his statement.

Evans defence counsel, Mr Olanrewaju Ajanaku, however disputed the validity of the recording by claiming it was heavily edited.

Evans, while being led in evidence by Ajanaku, described himself as a businessman dealing in haulage and ornaments and resident at No. 3, Fred Soyebode Street, Magodo Lagos.

In vivid detail, Evans described how he was tortured by police officers after his arrest.

He said: “Inspector Idowu Haruna (member of IGP Intelligence Response Team) took me to Abuja and brought me back to Lagos where I was at the Inspector General (IG) Guest House at Obalende, Lagos.

“Sunny, the 2 I/C (second in command) to Abba Kyari Mr Christian Ugu, Mr Phillip and other police officers working with them were there.

“Idowu Haruna brought about 25 sheets of paper and asked me to sign. That day, my mind told me not to sign because it might be my death warrant.

“Mr Phillip put his hand in his pocket and brought out a brown hospital card. He showed it to me and told me to sign it, saying, ‘Do you think that we are joking here?’ He said if anything happens to me here, this card covers everything.

“Mr Phillip said the police would not be held responsible. And before I knew it, Mr Christian slapped me, and that was how they started beating me,” Evans told the court.

The alleged kidnap kingpin gave more details to the court how the police officers tortured him and made him witness executions in a bid to get him to admit to his crimes.

He said: “Mr Christian Ugu was smoking. He quenched the cigarette on my hand. My Lord, look at my head where they beat me. My Lord, look at my hand.

“They took me to the backyard of the I.G’s guest house. I sustained injuries on my head and body and Mr Phillip asked the policemen to walk on me. When I started bleeding, he said, ‘You think we are joking here?’

“At the backyard, I saw some people that I was paraded with. They were wearing leg chains. Some of them had bullet wounds on their legs and Mr Phillip ordered Idowu Haruna to bring a big brown cello tape, handkerchief and polybags.

“Idowu Haruna forced a handkerchief into the mouth of one of them. He used the cello tape to tightly tape his mouth and face and put a polybag over his head and cello-taped it. He used another poly bag and cello-taped it the second time and they left the man on the ground.

“The man on the ground was shaking. He pissed (urinated) on his body. He pooed (defecated) on his body, and after a while, he went quiet.

“Idowu Haruna went to the man and stepped on his body, and he was irresponsive. Then he told me, ‘Can you see? I have travelled him.”

Evans told the court that four persons were executed in the same manner by the police officers in his presence.

“I was brought before them and I started begging, asking them what they wanted me to do, and they told me to cooperate with them. I said okay, I would do anything they wanted me to do.

“Phillip asked them to take me to the house and he asked if I knew the method of killing and I said no. They said that it is called ‘Saddam Hussein’.

“He said that there is no way an autopsy can predict the cause of death of the five people they had just killed and that those people had travelled.”

Evans said after witnessing the execution, the 25 sheets of paper were brought for him by the police to sign.

He recalled trembling with fear, saying that Mr Sunny, the second in command to Mr Abba Kyari, the Head of the IGP Intelligence Response Team, asked Inspector Haruna to offer him a can of cold Fanta.

“When the Fanta was given to me, I drank it. After a few minutes, they brought the 25 sheets of paper for me and I signed them.

“Some things were written on some of the sheets of paper while some were blank. That was how I was forced to sign the confessional statements.”

On cross-examination by Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Evans confirmed his name and the names of his parents and denied knowing the officers before his arrest.

He said: “I am 38 years old. I was born on April 29, 1980. My mother’s name is Mrs. Chinwe Onwuamadike and my father is Mr Stephen Onwuamadike.

“I did not know Inspector Haruna, Abba Kyari before my arrest. I am the one in the video. I was cautioned in the video, but after the cautionary words, I was forced to sign.

“The story I told the court was never an afterthought. SARS killed more than 30 people in my presence. The killings took place at the IG’s Guest House in Ikoyi.

“On the day I was arrested in my house and I was taken to Ikeja SARS Station, journalists were there. They had beaten the hell out of me in my house. I was interviewed by the journalists on Sunday, a day after I was arrested.

“When I was taken to the station, there was a field. I was in a car while I was waiting for Abba Kyari to come.

“When he came, he told me to beg for forgiveness in my interview with journalists and also to inform the world I had cancer which I don’t have. The police killed one Felix Chinemeri in my presence.”

While he was being re-examined by Ajanaku, his defense counsel, Evans said that he had not spoken to journalists before he made his alleged confessional statement to the police.

Earlier during proceedings, Inspector Idowu Haruna was cross-examined by Ajanaku.

He told the court it took more than an hour to obtain Evans’ statement.

Haruna denied that Evans changed his clothes because of bloodstains from torture before the video of Evans giving his confessional statement was made.

He denied editing the five-minute-33-second video of Evans giving his statement to the police.

“I never threatened to kill the first defendant (Evans) and I never created fear in him by killing people in his presence,” Haruna said.

Evans is standing trial alongside Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

They were arraigned on August 30, 2017 on two counts of conspiracy.

Evans and co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them by the state.

Justice Hakeem Oshodi adjourned the case until November 23 for continuation of defence in the trial-within-trial.

Lagos State High Court in Igbosere yesterday heard that suspected multi-millionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike (alias Evans), considered himself invincible.

Testifying, Police Inspector Idowu Haruna said Evans never believed he could be arrested.

According to him, Evans exclaimed during his arrest: ‘Oh God! I never knew this day will come!’

He said Evans promised to cooperate with the police by confessing to his alleged crime.

Evans is facing two charges of conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder before Justice Adedayo Akintoye.

Read also: I didn’t kill my wife, Shonde tells court

Haruna said Evans made his statement to the police voluntarily.

Led in evidence by prosecution counsel Dr. Jide Martin, the witness said Evans’ statement was recorded on June 26, 2017, at 2 pm, at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) office in Ikeja.

He said Evans narrated how he and his accomplices kidnapped Godwin Okorafor.

A consultant radiologist, from the Paramount Life Care Diagnosis Centre, Samuel Oyemakinde, in the first charge, tendered a medical report and an X-ray result showing that a kidnap victim, James Uduji, sustained a gunshot wound.

Oyemakinde, who was subpoenaed to give evidence, said there was a linear foreign body lodged in the victim’s upper left lung zone.

Justice Akintoye adjourned till November 2 for continuation of trial.

A witness, Izuchukwu Ezeuko, on Thursday told an Igbosere High Court in Lagos how he dropped one million dollar ransom for the alleged kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans.

Ezeuko, a manager in the victim’s firm, Mr James Uduji, made the revelation while giving evidence at the ongoing trial of Evans.

The manager, who is the fifth witness in the trial, said he agreed to travel from Lagos to the Southeast to drop the ransom in order to save his boss’ life.

Evans is facing two separate charges bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder before Justice Adedayo Akintoye.

In the first charge, Evans is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

In the second charge, he is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba.

At the resumed trial of the case on Thursday, Ezeuko narrated how he paid one million dollar ransom in two tranches of 800, 000 and 200,000 dollars to the kidnappers of his employer.

The witness said that on Sept. 7, 2015, his employer came to the factory at Agbara as usual.

According to him, at 5.00 p.m. he got a call that his employer who had left the factory for home was kidnapped.

However, after some weeks of the alleged kidnap, on Oct. 10, 2015, he got a call from a private number, who said he should speak with his boss.

“My boss then spoke to me and said if I want him alive, I should go to the East to deliver money to the alleged kidnappers.

“I went to Festac Town and met Mr Edwin Uduji, the victim’s brother, who arranged the first 800, 000 dollars for me to travel with.

“On October 11, I drove to the East with the victim’s elder sister, and in the East, a voice gave us instructions on how to drop the money,’’ Ezeuko said.

He said they were made to drive round Anambra from Awka to Ozubulu, also to Ekwuluobia and the environs until they were asked to stop at Oba.

“It was at Oba that the voice asked the victim’s sister to come down from the vehicle with the money.

“The voice directed her to an uncompleted building where she dropped the money. It was dark so we did not see the person who picked the money,’’ Ezeuko told the court.

He said two weeks after the 800, 000 dollar ransom was dropped and the kidnappers released his boss.

However, towards the end of October, his boss asked him to take another 200, 000 dollars to the kidnappers because the kidnappers were still threatening his life.

Ezeuko said he took the money down to East and was asked to drop it on the Onitsha expressway by the voice that gave him instructions.

However, during cross-examination, counsel to Evans, Mr Olarewaju Ajanaku, asked Ezeuko if he informed the police that such ransom was to be paid or gave the call logs of the person he interacted with the to the police.

The witness said he did not inform the police about the ransom before paying and did not give the call logs to the police.

However, another witness, Sgt. Kingsley Harold, gave evidence concerning the first charge, in which Evans is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba, over the  kidnap of Mr Donatus.

Harold said after Evans was arrested, he was asked to make a statement at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) office in Ikeja but Evans said he was not “too good” in writing.

He said Evans, however, asked him to write the statement for him, adding that the statement was recorded in an open office in the presence of senior police officers and other people who came to the office for other cases.

He said the statement was recorded in a conducive environment between 2.00 pm and 3.00 pm, adding that the defandant was cautioned before making the statement.

However, the defendant’ s counsel opposed the admissibility of such statement and a trial-within-trial was conducted to ascertain the admissibility of such evidence.

After listening to the arguments, Justice Akintoye adjourned until Oct. 8 for continuation of trial. (NAN)

A witness, Edwin Uduji, on Monday told an Igbosere High Court in Lagos how kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, threatened to collect a fine of 10, 000 dollars for any fake 100dollar bill in the ransom paid to him.

Uduji, an elder brother to abduction victim, Mr James Uduji, made the revelation while giving evidence at the trial of Evans, the Anambra-born high-profile kidnapper, known for kidnapping mainly billionaires.

Evans is currently facing two separate charges, bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder, before Justice Adedayo Akintoye.

In the first charge, Evans is standing trial alongside one Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

In the second charge, the big time kidnapper is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba.

At the resumed trial, Uduji narrated to the court how he paid one million dollar ransom to the kidnappers of his brother.

He said that he was contacted by phone by the kidnappers two days after his brother (James) was kidnapped, adding that he was made to speak with the kidnap victim.

“My brother told me that the kidnappers had agreed to collect one million dollars.

“My brother said I should do everything possible to gather the money to save his life because he sustained bullet wound from the kidnapper’s bullet,” Edwin said.

The victim’s brother said that the ransom was gathered from his brother’s business associates.

Edwin said he had to change all the money into dollars through bureau de change, adding that the ransom was paid in two installments of 200, 000 and 800, 000 dollars, respectively.

“The instruction from the voice that usually called me was that when I get the naira, I must change it into cripsy 100 dollar bills and if there is any fake 100 dollar, I will pay a fine of 10,000 dollars.

“My brother (the victim) also pleaded with me not to make arrangements with security agents so that the kidnappers will not kill him.

“On the day I dropped the first ransom of 200, 000 dollars, the kidnappers instructed me with phone where to drop the money. I was made to drive round Lagos before they finally instructed me to drop it along Cele expressway at about 2.20 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2015,” Edwin said.

He said the second ransom tranche of 800, 000 dollars, was paid by his relative, Mr Izuchukwu Ezeuko, adding that the 800, 000 dollars was paid in the eastern part of the country.

Edwin also told court that when the money was taking time to be gathered, the kidnappers asked that he be swapped with his brother (James) so that James could get home and source the money quickly.

During cross- examination, Counsel to Evans,  Mr E. C. Obiagwu, tried discrediting the witness’s statement, adding that the phone conversation he allegedly had with the kidnappers were not mentioned in his statement at the police station.

Another witness, Donatus Nwoye, an assistant driver to the victim also narrated his side of the story to the court.

Nwoye said he sustained bullet wound at his left shoulder when the kidnappers were shooting sporadically.

“I was taken to the hospital by some okada men after the incident,” he said.

During cross-examination, Nwoye who had said he was unconscious when the bullet hit him, said his understanding of unconsciousness was “somebody who is not well”.

After listening to the argument, Akintoye adjourned the case until Oct. 4 for continuation of hearing. (NAN)