Cultists and kidnappers’ Lucky Charm Maker Arrested

Never knew kidnappers also visit native doctors for charms. Luck ran out on a 75-year old native doctor, Akugbe Ugbo, who specialises in preparing ‘goodluck’ charms for kidnappers as he was arrested by operatives of the 4 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Benin, Edo State, southsouth Nigeria. The suspect, who was said to have prepared the charms for a kidnap gang headed by a man simply called Anthony now on the run, was paraded along with suspected kidnappers, cultists and a drug dealer.

He was arrested after two of the kidnap suspects, Jacob Umoru and Moses Otoro revealed that the charms given to them by the native doctor failed them. The septuagenarian native doctor who neither denied nor corroborated his involvement, said the gang leader, Anthony was a son to him and that he helped Anthony to buy a piece of land to start a building before he was arrested.

In his confessional statement, Jacob said he received N600,000 from a ransom of N6 million paid to them by a female victim before he was arrested while Moses said he had been involved in five kidnap operations. Four other suspects, Ogue Michael, Osas Omoh, Osato Ogiraka and Ahomafan Lucky were arrested by soldiers attached to Operation Thunderstorm at Ugbiyoko while attempting to escape with a female victim identified as Mrs. Bridget Ize-Iyamu. Three other kidnap suspects, Ogiefo Atekha, Friday Dafe and Hilary Igbinomwanhia, were arrested after their victim, a poultry farmer, got information of plans to kidnap him.

Other suspects paraded by the Army were two students of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, identified as Eseni Christian and Osazuwa Evbimarumwen. They were arrested for attempted murder. Osazuwa said they were on a revenge mission to kill a fellow student when their shot missed the target and hit a commercial motorcyclist, adding that their plan was to kill the student who killed a member of their cult called Livinus. Lord help us!