Kidnap kingpin, John Ewa, others paraded in Yenagoa

John Ewa, a suspected kidnapping mastermind recently detained in the state of Bayelsa, has been paraded by the police.

The state commissioner of police introduced the suspect and his accomplices to the media today, September 26. 

He said that on December 8, one Akeeb Oladele Olushola, 48, a Manager of a new generation Bank, was abducted at his home in Old Commissioners Quarters Opolo. After being paid an 80,000,000 Naira ransom on December 12th, he was freed.

In a similar vein, he claimed that on June 30, 2022, Danjuma Omeje, 41, a Manager of a New Generation Bank in Yenagoa, was abducted at his home in Okaka, Yenagoa. 

After paying a ransom of 60 million naira—30 million naira in cash and the equivalent of thirty million naira in US dollars—on July 14, 2022, he was eventually freed.

The ringleader of the kidnapping network, Emmanuel Charles Angase'm', 37, a native of Azuzuama Community, Southern Ijaw LGA, was detained after a thorough investigation, according to the police commissioner.

The police chief claimed that Angase, along with his second-in-command, Gbalipre Gamage, who is currently at large, run a kidnapping camp in Sunikiri Creek close to Oluasiri in Nembe Local Government Area. With the money from the ransom he received, he bought a brand-new Toyota Avalon for his wife, which was found by police agents.

The gang's leader, Emmanuel Charles Angase, admitted that he and John Ewa, along with other fugitives, kidnapped Danjuma Omeje on June 30, 2022, at the entrance to his home in Okaka. They then fled in a blue Toyota Corolla with the license plate KJA 225 AY.

The second suspect, John Ikechukwu Ewa'm' 30 years old as John Lion, a resident of Eruan Community in Boki LGA, Cross River State, was identified as having a flamboyant online persona. He claimed that Ewa, a former cleaner at a new generation bank, had admitted to taking ten thousand dollars ($10,000) from the ransom demanded in the kidnapping of Danjuma Omeje.