…Father says kidnappers of his 12-year-old daughter have been traced to kingpin allegedly operating from Enugu Correctional Centre
Preamble:
The story runs like Nollywood epic but it’s real and live. It began in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, touched down in Enugu, the Coal City, and is reverberating around Nigeria’s federal capital where politics turns water into wine.
Sequence of the evil drama:
– Favour Oluwaseyin (12yrs) was in her father’s parlour watching television with her mom on August 7, 2024.
– Neighbour’s daughter (actually her friend) entered, joined in watching.
– Mother later left to ease herself in the toilet, but did not see the two girls, but thought nothing of it
– Evening soon came, no sign of Favour. She went and asked the daughter’s friend who said the girl followed a man, a stranger. It turned out that she was taken away in a tricycle (Keke).
– The woman called the husband. Soon, call came for ransom. Family begged and begged, then coughed out 100,000.
– Favour not released; police were invited at last.
– The police arrested the neighbour’s daughter briefly but released her. Today, the girl and parents have disappeared.
– Later, another N100,000 paid but no result
– A policeman extorted N250,000 from the father to help track the kidnapper, nothing happened. Policeman later attempted to use the name of the former Rivers’ Commissioner of Police to extort another N300,000. Father raised alarm, filed complaint against him, but nothing happened
– Father reported to Mile One Police.
– Police and father tracked the bank account and number to Enugu Correctional Centre. Investigations showed the suspect had been in prison since 2021.
– Suspicion: He operates from Prison
– Mile One Police sent four officers with the father to Enugu (the wife of the man was arrested at a time and she took them to her husband in prison)
– The team from PH went to Enugu Correctional Centre, met the suspect who looked well fed and rich with Android phone, etc
– Suspect admitted a lot, wrote confessional statement.
– He was asked to produce the Android phone with which he made video call with the wife in presence of the police.
– He went with Correctional officers to produce it, but when he returned, he became a different man; aggressive, etc. He refused to sign anything.
– Delegation returned to PH, but strangely, Police lost interest in matter.
– Coalition of Civil Society Organisations and media took over.
– Correctional PRO denied any involvement of Enugu Correctional Centre.
– CSOs and father reject the denial, call for Minister’s intervention.
– They insist the Visitors’ Notebook would show that Police officers visited from PH with the father.
– Father says he has photo of the man they paid the ransom to, and that the Correctional authorities should not just dismiss the tips to avoid covering a vicious kidnap gang possibly operating right from the prison.
Read also: APC chieftain calls on President Tinubu to address upsurge in kidnapping
Cry of a pained father:
After hearing the response of Umar Abubakar the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigerian Correctional Service, the father of the victim, Oluwaseyi Ogunasinasi, appeared at a press conference arranged by the Rivers State Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (RivCSO) in Port Harcourt and cried out to many authorities to intervene and not be dismissive of his daughter’s abduction since August 2024.
He reminded the police and the Correctional authorities how his daughter was kidnapped on August 7, 2024 right from his parlour through a third party and how on August 9, 2024, a number called his wife’s line and demanded for a ransom.
“The caller sent account details that carried UBA (United Bank of Africa) and we made a ransom payment to that same account of which we have tracked the number to Enugu Correctional Centre. This led to the initial press conference here in Port Harcourt. To my greatest surprise, on April 20, 2024, I saw the response of the PRO of the Nigerian Correctional Centre and how Abubakar speedily responded and debunked such a very strong allegation against Enugu Correctional Centre and claimed that such thing never happened.
“It is shocking to hear him claim that nobody bears such name in that prison, claiming that we never visited the Enugu Correctional Centre, of which I have every evidence, I have every prove. I have the picture of the suspected criminal who collected the ransom from me.
“On behalf of my kidnapped daughter Favour Oluwatofumi Oluwaseyi, please I want to say with all my strength that that the PRO of the Nigerian Correctional Center seems unfit for his job. How can he debunk such an allegation without a proper and a thorough investigation to the Enugu Correctional Centre?”
The traumatised father said on December 4, 2024, “We visited that Enugu Correctional Center, myself and four police men from the Special Operation and Intelligence Unit, a tactical Unit attached to Mile 1 Division in Port Harcourt. I saw this guy myself with my clear eyes. In fact you needed to see him yourself. He doesn’t look like someone that is in Prison. He doesn’t look like an inmate. The wrist watch in his hand alone, even people in freedom don’t easily afford and use that kind of wrist watch. Even his dressing alone will raise your suspicion about how well to do he is. I was expecting to see a younger person looking like a prisoner with prison uniform, but unfortunately, this is the otherwise.”
He went on: “I wonder what is happening in our country Nigeria. I have his picture, I have every details concerning him, I have his wife’s picture, his name is Chidiebere Chikezie, that is his full name, but popularly known as ‘Chiboy’.
He’s well known in the prison as Chiboy Chikezie Chidiebere.
“As a matter of fact, how can somebody who claimed to be an inmate in a prison custody, either he has been sentenced or he’s in a remand custody, be busy doing video calls on a daily basis?
“How did I come to know this? Of course, he did the same video call with his wife several occasions when the wife was arrested by the Nigerian Police. We arrested the wife in Enugu and we brought the wife to Port Harcourt here. All of a sudden, the wife was released without cogent reason, without a surety. Right now, I don’t really know what is happening in Nigeria. I don’t really know what is happening with our security agencies. Please on this note, I am calling the authorities. What I need to be the best joy of my life is my daughter Favour Oluwatofumi Oluwaseyi to be released unconditionally and to be reunited back with us, back to her family.
“This week precisely on Saturday April 26, 2025) will be her birthday, and this will be the great joy of the entire family, Nigerian citizens, Rivers State at large that this girl will be freed from the den and the captivity of those that kidnapped her. I am demanding that everyone involved in this to be brought to justice. I am demanding that everyone that is involved, that is found culpable in the kidnapping of my daughter be brought to book.”
The father tried to fall back on the various institutions that ordinarily should rise to arms and defend an innocent child. “That is why, at this juncture, I am calling on the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our own President, who swore an oath to protect the lives and property of citizens of this country. I am calling on the Nigerian Police Force, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to order his men to speed action on this matter to order his Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Olugbenga Adepoju, to with immediate effect speed up action to find justice in this matter.”
He mentioned one Chief Superintendent of Police who he said had shown enthusiasm in the matter, but unfortunately, ever since they returned from Enugu Prison Correctional Center, it has been one way or the other. “I don’t know what is happening any longer. I have been going there every now and then without tangible result. How can somebody who lured my daughter out of my room be left out in this matter? It wasn’t that we sent my daughter on an errand. She is the one that visited my daughter. They began to watch television together. This girl who happened to be my neighbour’s daughter lured her away from the house to the main road, where they put my daughter in a Keke and drove my daughter away since August last year.
“As a matter of fact, I have passed through a lot regarding this matter, and in the process of what I passed through, I came across one police officer (withheld), who defrauded me of N250,000 in the guise that he wanted to track them and make arrest. Up till now, despite the petition I wrote to Police Headquarters in Port Harcourt, nothing was done. That same young officer was not even invited give his own side of the story. The worst part is that he had asked me again to produce N300,000 on the guise that it was CP of that (Olatunji Disu) that asked for it. I got angry with him because I did not believe him. I have every evidence to prove my claim, I am not alleging but it is authentic.
“Please, I am calling on the authorities of the Nigerian Correctional Centre to know that their men are not in order right now. Your men are misbehaving, your custodians are misbehaving. I don’t know, is it a crime to be born in Nigeria? I am asking you people, is it a crime to be a Nigerian? My daughter, a 12-year-old, will be in the den of the captivity of kidnappers for more than eight months now. What are we doing?”
The father cried louder to Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior. “You swore an oath to protect and secure the lives and property of Nigerian citizens. Please, this is your jurisdiction sir. One of your grand-daughters has been missing.
“I listened in April when our National Security Adviser was advising Nigerian citizen not to be paying ransom to kidnappers and bandits. As a matter of fact, someone like me whose daughter, a lovely daughter, a 12-year-old daughter was kidnapped, what do I do if somebody called me to pay ransom. In my case, despite the payment, she has not been released. What do I do, our government people?”
“I beg the Minister, the National Security Adviser, etc, to please step into this matter, from your office. I’m calling on the presidency of Nigeria to step into this matter and let us get justice for my daughter Oluwatofumi Favour Oluwaseyi to be released and be brought back to us. This is my call.”
Rivers coalition renews demands
The Rivers Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (RivCSO) led by Georgewill Enefaa, which opened the can of worms, says it stands by its call that the kidnap king must be connected in Enugu Correctional Centre.
At the latest press briefing, Enefaa said: “We had made it clear in our previous statement, that the prime suspect in the kidnap of Oluwatofunmi Favour is linked to an inmate in Enugu prison. Surprisingly, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Centre, rather than conduct an investigation or look into the merit of the matter, would just make a blanket statement.”
He said the position of the NCoS appears false and provocative. He said specific claims point to the involvement of a suspect, Chidebere Chikezie alias Chiboy, at the Enugu Correctional facility.
Enefaa continued: “The statement is not only laughable and embarrassing, but we find it disturbing that the Nigerian Correctional Service hastily dismissed this serious allegation without conducting a thorough investigation. By taking this part, the Nigerian Correctional Service is reminding the country that it is very far from redemption.
“As you are all aware, we had similar incidents that happened in our Delta State not too long ago, and of course, we have a series of similar cases around our correctional centres, otherwise known as prisons, across the country.
Given the gravity of the situation, we challenge the Nigerian Correctional Service to: Conduct an immediate, open, and thorough investigation into these allegations; Make public the visit register for December 4, 2024, to verify the claim that the victim’s father, accompanied by police officers from Rivers State, visited the Enugu Correctional Facility; And provide concrete evidence to support their denial to demonstrate transparency and accountability.
“We stand by this statement until otherwise proven. The public deserves to know the truth. An open probe and release of relevant records will help bring those responsible to justice. We cannot afford to have correctional facilities across the country compromised by corruption, enabling criminals to continue their nefarious activities.
“We expect the Nigerian Correctional Service to cooperate fully and provide the necessary information to help restore the abducted 12-year-old girl, Favour Oluwaseyi, to her family.
“Finally, we would like to add that the Minister for Interior should immediately step in, and if the spokesperson for the Correctional Service is found culpable or is going to press without doing this investigation, we are saying that the Minister for Interior should recommend for sack for such a spokesperson.
“We are equally saying that the Correctional Service should come clean if he is not the one that instructed the spokesperson or PRO to make that statement. We are saying that he should come clean and immediately conduct an investigation and distance himself from this act. Otherwise, we will be forced to think that he is equally culpable, and as such, the Minister for Interior should recommend for a sack. That is our position. Thank you very much.”
RivCSO emphasized thus: “We are not claiming, we are making a statement of fact that this kidnap took place while Chidiebere aka Chiboy was in Enugu Correctional Service. We remain bold to make this claim because our investigation shows that the charge that brought him to Enugu facility was cultism and from what we gathered it was since 2021. It is from there he released the account to Favour’s father to pay the ransom. It’s now left for the warders in Enugu to tell us whether they released him at a point to go carry out activities, or not. That is up them to answer. But what we can tell you is that he was in detention when this act was committed. He is the prime suspect. That is why we are questioning the credibility of Enugu Correctional Service. We are saying that officials of Enugu Correctional Service have questions to answer, otherwise they should release him to come and answer his questions.”
