Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team have arrested a graduate of the National Open University, Stanley Obed, for allegedly threatening to kill his lover’s husband identified simply as Chidi in Rivers State.
It was gathered that Obed, who disguised as a kidnapper, demanded the sum of N2.5m from Chidi and threatened to kidnap him if he refused to pay the money.
According to a source, the 31-year-old sent a picture of ammunition to Chidi to further threaten him to pay the money.
The source said, “This deals with a case of threat to kidnap one Mr Chidi and his family if he refused to pay the sum of N2.5m by an unknown caller, with the phone number 08142134240, which was later reported to the IRT, Port Harcourt annex, on November 10, 2021.
“The IRT commenced action and the perpetrator was tracked and arrested on November 14, 2021, at his house in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. In the course of investigations, the suspect confessed that he stole the phone with the SIM card for the purpose of carrying out the act without being traced.
“He further confessed to be in possession of some quantities of live ammunition, and four AK-47 magazines and 121 rounds of 762mm live ammunition, which were later recovered from the bedroom of the same address.”
The suspect, in his confessional statement to the police, allegedly said he met Chidi’s wife at NOUN where they later became friends.
He claimed that Chidi threatened him when he became aware of his relationship with his wife.
The statement read in part, “His wife, Jane, is my friend and in the course of my friendship with the lady, the husband collected my number from his wife and called me. He introduced himself as Jane’s husband and questioned my relationship with his wife and I told him that we were just friends.
“He later called me back and instructed me to stop whatever relationship that existed between me and his wife and I told him I would stop it. He later called me again to apologise for his attitude and told me to continue with the relationship. I told him that we were just friends and he asked that in the course of my friendship with his wife, what were those things that she complained about him.
“I told him that the wife complained that he was keeping late at night, not showing them much attention. He asked me for my sincere opinion on the complaints and I told him that it was just for him to change his attitude. Later on, he started threatening me; he downloaded my pictures from my Facebook account to threaten me and at that point, I told the wife that we had to stop the friendship between us.”
Speaking on how he got the ammunition, Obed stated that a soldier, who was his friend, gave him the live ammunition to keep.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, who confirmed that the suspect was arrested over threat to life, said he would be charged to court after investigation.
He said, “He was arrested when a case of threat to life was reported and magazines and live ammunition were recovered from him, but rifles were not found. He said the weapons belonged to one soldier in the North. I don’t know about the girlfriend angle to the matter because it was a case of threat to life that was reported.”
@ Punch Newspaper
